How to not Die During the Zombie Apocalypse
by SephCurrentDaughterofPoseidon
Summary: Clary Fray and her sister, Tessa, are both on the road trying to stay alive. Of course, there are a lot of obvious rules and regulations to surviving the Apocalypse. So what happens when the two sisters, who are practically experts, meet a pair of gorgeous, zombie slaying cousins that make them question everything that they have ever known? AU AH
1. Never Trust Strangers

**Okay, so this is my newest story! How to not Die During the Zombie Apocalypse. I hope you like it, and despite the two genre categories that it is under, I promise that it is going to be every bit as funny as all of my other fics.**

* * *

_**Chapter One: Never Trust Strangers**_

* * *

_**~Clary~**_

Clary woke up when she heard a loud banging noise. She sat up on a soft and plush mattress. It took her a moment to remember that she and Tessa had stopped the night before at an abandoned house for rest.

She looked over groggily and realized that her sister was no longer on the large bed beside her; that, coupled with the loud sound that'd woke her up, was enough to send Clary into a slight panic.

She immediately pushed herself off the Mattress and got to her feet. She grabbed the knife off the short wooden nightstand standing beside the bed and raced out of the open doorway.

The house was small with only two tiny bedrooms, a bathroom, and a living room that led into the kitchen. It was obvious that it'd been abandoned since the beginning of the end of the world. The dust was settled on the floors, the walls, and the sparse pieces of furniture that littered the rooms.

She moved out of the room and walked through the tiny hallway. The bathroom door was opened, but when Clary stuck her head inside, all she saw was a grimy toilet and a dry rotted curtain covering a shower. Feeling a little more panicky, she backed away and moved toward the kitchen at a run, making it there in under a second. This was a feat due to the shortness of her...well everything, really.

She expected to walk in on an ambush of three or four stumbling creatures chasing after her terrified sister. They would be slimy and gross as they attempted to catch her and sink their rotting teeth into her flesh.

Instead, all Clary saw was Tessa.

Her tall form was bent over a familiar large gym bag that as filled with what Clary was pretty sure were cans of food. It was probably what made the noise that had startled her so badly. Now that she thought back, it was a high pitch clink, more than a bang. Considering the fact that the bag was sitting in a messy heap on the filthy linoleum flooring, it was a pretty safe bet to make that it had been a false alarm.

Clary sighed quietly in relief, but it carried across the silent room a lot further than she'd thought. Tessa straightened up and spun around quickly. She stared at Clary with an expression that was equivalent of a child getting caught with their hand in a cookie jar.

She smiled at me sheepishly as she pushed a strand of her long, dark hair behind her ears. "I didn't mean to startle you," she said, her blue-grey eyes showing the same amount of guilt as her voice. "I figured that I could get us a bit of food ready to eat before we had to leave."

"That's fine," she said quickly, holding her hands up to stop her from apologizing any further; if Tessa wanted to handle the food who was Clary to stop her? "You go ahead and do that. I'll go out and look around to make sure no zombies decide to stumble up and surprise us."

"It's a good thing that they aren't attracted that much by sight," Tessa informed her jokingly. "Your hair would have gotten us caught years ago."

Clary smiled at the comment. "Shut up, Tess," she said. "You're just jealous that you don't look like this."

"You mean short and pale with red hair?" she asked her with a raised eyebrow.

"Exactly," Clary said, ignoring her sarcasm. She walked toward the living room, where the front door was. As she placed her hand on the knob, she called over her shoulder, "You forgot the freckles!"

She held on to her knife a bit more firmly, smirking as she heard the faint sound of her sister's laughter from the kitchen. She took a deep breath and opened the door, her knife raised to impale anything in her way. Except there was nothing waiting to lunge at me from the other side, much to her relief.

She walked out on to the porch, looking around carefully.

There was no way that one was getting past her notice. It threw her off that there was nothing around. Nothing at all. Not that she was complaining, but there was always one or two of the undead just shuffling around, hoping that she and Tessa might slip up so they could get some food.

She frowned as she slowly descended the stairs. There was nothing around...the front, at least. Sure that she'll find at least one walking corpse to put down in the back, she began to walk to the nearest side. She saw one at the very edge of her vision, but nothing close enough to concern her. They only started moving quickly when they sensed possible food. So it would be stumbling along for half a day before it made it close enough to sense them and start moving more quickly. She simply shrugged and turned around.

She noticed that the wind was starting to pick up a certain chilliness to it. She and Tessa were going to have to grab some jackets soon. She made a mental note to stop at the next store that they came across.

She climbed back up the stairs and stepped back inside. Tessa, who'd been sitting crisscross applesauce on the floor emptying out cans into bowls, jumped to her feet. She had a wickedly long and sharp knife in front of her, clearly intent on beheading whatever was in the doorway.

They locked eyes for a moment before she lowered her arm, breathing heavily. "Scared me," she said as she settled back down. She placed the knife on the floor beside her. "It didn't take you too long."

"No stragglers," Clary explained. She walked over the dusted carpet and to the linoleum flooring. She sat beside her sister, the freezing floor permeating through her jeans. She shivered slightly as she grabbed her blue plastic bowl of what looked like pork and beans mush for breakfast. Scrumptious.

As she started slowly lifting her battered spoon to her mouth, she saw her sister looking at her funnily out of the corner of her eye. "There were no stragglers?" she questioned incredulously. Clary sat her spoon back in her bowl and turned to look at her sister. She had her arms crossed over her chest, her bowl sat on the floor untouched.

"None," Clary agreed solemnly. "I don't know why, I just know that there weren't any."

"I don't like this," Tessa said, frowning as she turned and looked out of the kitchen window. It wasn't like she could see anything but the sky at the angle at she was looking at. It made Clary wonder sarcastically if she was looking to see if it was going to start raining the undead.

"What don't you like?" Clary asked, raising an eyebrow at her. "Personally, it made my morning a little easier. For some reason, the thought of impaling a knife into the forehead of a used-to-be-human, which happens to be located too close to the mouth for comfort, puts a damper on my day.

"Clary," Tessa says in that gentle older sister voice, "I don't think you're getting it."

"What is there to get?" she demanded, finally scooping out a pile of the gunk that was her breakfast and shoveling it into her mouth.

"There were stragglers last night," she said slowly, hitting her outstretched left index finger with her right one, as though she was ticking off a point. "We killed those ones, but think about it, why weren't there any this morning to kill? When there's one zombie around, Clary, there's always a few shuffling behind it somewhere." Tessa looked at her sister pointedly, and Clary just stared back blankly, still not getting her sister's train of thought. "If we didn't kill them, Clary," Tessa said, her voice was now holding the slightest hint of impatience, "then who did?"

"Oh," Clary managed weakly, "I get it now." Someone else was nearby.

"You remember our oath, right?" Tessa asked Clary sharply.

Clary nodded. She remembered the group of people who'd killed their parents two years before over a few cans of meaningless food. If Tessa wouldn't have thought to have grabbed the frying pan and slammed it over the top of the head of the man who was coming after them, neither would be here. She found herself rattling it off to her sister, "Never trust strangers."

She felt dread pooling in her stomach as she looked over at Tessa. "We need to get out of here," Tessa said, "before we find out who these strangers are."

"Agreed," Clary nodded in confirmation. She stood up and grabbed the bag in one hand and the knife in the other. "Let's get packed. We can eat on the go."

* * *

_**~Jace~**_

There was something about zombie hunting that just completed Jace Herondale. He didn't know if it was the way that he was able to simply release pent-up aggression, or if it was the glee of being able to do something so violent and not be punished for it. It was probably a strange mixture of the two.

He and his cousin, Will, were out on a three day raid of a supermarket a couple of towns over for the small community that they'd managed to salvage in the town of Alicante. They'd stopped at every single untouched gas station along the way and managed to loot them clean. So it was the middle of their second day when they finally hit the town. Jace was driving the large red Ford truck while his cousin Will sat shotgun. He had his nose stuck in an old map, giving him directions to the center of the town, which was where the store of choice.

"You think we'll be able to find Cecily something for her birthday?" Will asked him, suddenly breaking the silence between them, which had lasted well over three hours. Jace was fairly sure that it was a record.

"Do you even know when her birthday is?" Jace asked him, actually curious. He looked away from the deserted road for a moment to look at his cousin, who hadn't looked away from the map yet. All Jace could see was his mop of black hair, which he hadn't bothered brushing since they'd left, and the edge of a blue eye.

"I know it's when it's just starting to get cold out," he says. "It's toward the end of September, and considering the fact that it was fairly chilly out this morning…." he trailed off, clearly figuring that an ending to the sentence was not needed.

Jace shrugged. "She's what? Sixteen now?" He looked over at Will, who was slowly nodding, as though he was unsure of the exact age himself. "What do sixteen year old girls even _like?"_

"Oh, yes," Will said sarcastically, finally tearing his gaze away from the map to look at him sharply, his blue eyes obviously glowing in irritation, "ask me because I obviously know what a sixteen year old girl likes! I was one only a few years ago!"

Jace nodded his head. "That explains a lot. Probably why you scream like a little bitch every time we see a zombie."

He looked back at the road for a moment, maneuvering out of the way of a station wagon that had been abandoned in their lane of the road. He looked back at Will and snorted at the venomous look that his cousin was favoring him with. It was quite hilarious.

"Something wrong, William?" Jace asked innocently.

"Nothing at all Jaciepoo," Will replied smartly. "I'm simply planning your death in a methodical manner. I'm even taking into consideration how to muffle your screams so the zombies won't hear us."

"Two requests," Jace replied easily as he turned off an exit ramp that would take them directly to the middle of the town. "First, don't shove a _sock_ in my mouth. Especially not a dirty one that's been anywhere near your disease ridden foot."

Will snorted and shook his head as he began folding up their map. "Noted," he said with a nod.

"Secondly," he said. "Whatever you do, make sure that my face isn't affected. It's much too attractive to sustain damage."

"You sure it isn't because you don't want to be any uglier than you already are?" Will asked; his voice was steady and straight. Jace turned his head and looked over at him. He was just staring at Jace with a raised eyebrow. Jace almost bought it, but he could see the corners of Will's lips fighting from forming a smile.

"You've got it mixed up," Jace informed him cheekily. "You see, I'm the stunningly handsome one and you're the stunningly hideous bastard."

"I think you've done something to your head," Will said. Jace saw the back of his hand coming toward his face, but since he was driving, it wasn't as though he could really dodge it. He winced slightly, as it slammed into his forehead. "You don't have a fever. Have you been taking anything that would make you hallucinate? I mean I know the past few years have been hard on you, but I'm telling you, Jace, drugs are not the answer!"

Jace rolled his eyes and swatted Will's hand away from his face. "Shut up, Will."

"That the best comeback that you can muster up, little cousin?" Will asked mockingly. "I'm terrified. Clearly we have a lot of things to work on…like sharpening your wit again."

Jace would have said more, but he saw the large building of the store that was their target. It no longer had any distinguishing signs that would tell anyone what it was, but Jace wasn't stupid.

"Welcome to the magical world of Wal-Mart," he said, leaning over at patting Will on the shoulder. "Are you sure that a gorgeous pretty boy like yourself won't mind venturing inside?"

"Not entirely," Will replied smartly. "I'm sure I can suck it up just this once."

"Good," he said, looking out of his side window. "Because we have a couple of stragglers starting to limp our way and I would hate hogging all of the fun."

Before Will could reply, Jace had already leaned into the back and grabbed his favorite two blades. He couldn't remember the actual names for them, only that they were weird. They were long, almost like two short swords, and they were wickedly sharp.

Will reached in behind him and pulled out an actual sword. It was his pride and joy, Jace knew, and he had to admit that Will was good with it. He would hate to get into an actual fight with him. "Well let's go," Will said. "Whoever kills the most zombies is off the hook for tonight's drive."

Jace found himself nodding. Will stuck out his hand, and Jace grasped it. They shook on it once firmly and Jace said, "You're on."

He opened his door and jumped outside. He heard Will do the same on the other side of the truck. The zombies seemed to move even more quickly now that he and Will were exposed. Jace looked down at his knives and whirled them around in his hands.

"Let's not get scratched this time," he said as Will walked over to his side. His cousin casted him an award winning grin, showing off his straight and bright white teeth.

"Sounds like a plan, little cousin," Will nodded. And then they went to work. Jace took off in a run, his arms behind him slightly as he came to his first victims. They were limping toward him with their arms stretched out in his direction. He could see the dirt and grime on their fingernails as he vaulted off the ground. In mid-summersault, he slashed his arms forward, not having to look to know that he'd made his mark. He could feel the knives tearing past the rotted flesh and bone. The sound of their dismembered heads hitting the pavement, which had made him sick the first few times that he'd heard it, was music to his ears.

He landed gracefully on his feet right in front of another straggler. He flashed his knife forward, blocking its hand from reaching him, and bringing his other knife around. He drove it into the monster's skull and ripped it out at the same time that he flipped the hilt his other knife over in his hand and slammed it backward, catching the creature behind him before it could get to him. He turned around and saw that he'd managed to catch it in the neck. He brought his other knife up and, with one clean strike the head was off the zombie's shoulders.

And, just like that, they were alone all over again, with dismembered bodies lying all around them.

"Four so far, William," Jace said, turning to face his cousin.

Will smirked at him, his hand gesturing grandly to his handiwork. "Well, Jace," he said, "I'm not sure why you're so smug. Allow me to explain, seeing as you can't count. I've killed five."

Jace's smugness faded slightly, but he managed to regain it quickly. "It's no matter," he said with a shrug. "There's still plenty of time."

* * *

_**~Tessa~**_

"You dragged me in here," Tessa said aggravated, "for _coats?"_ She was looking at her sister incredulously. "I can't believe you!"

"Yes you can," Clary said, waving behind her blindly, though it was in Tessa's general direction. "We need jackets, and I'm not about to freeze. We can get in and get out." They were standing in a Wal-Mart parking lot, and both of them were looking at the old building.

Tessa looked away first and her eyes caught the sight of something grave indeed: mangled bodies. Actually, they would be mangled, dismembered bodies. "Clary," she said, taking a step in the direction of the offensive sight. "Clary, do you see that?"

"See what?" her sister asked. A moment later, she must have followed Tessa's gaze, because she inhaled a small and sharp bit of breath and said, "Oh, that."

Tessa moved forward. She'd had it with all of the strangeness of the day. The stragglers not around that morning had been odd enough, but this was something else entirely. As she got closer to the bodies, she realized that the goo that was coming from the stumps of the creatures' necks was still gooey, and that the footprints that were leading away from the now permanent corpses and to the Wal-Mart were still wet.

"These are fresh," Tessa said, looking over at Clary. "I think we need to go somewhere else for your coats."

"I think," Clary said, "that this has to be connected to this morning, and if it is," the shorter girl shrugged, "I want to ask them why they've been so close to us." Tessa had really wished that Clary was going to tell her that they could just go. Not confirm her fear and then insist on facing it. "If they have a problem with it," she pulled her long knife out of its sheath and twirled it around in her palm as a wicked smile started growing on her face, "I guess we can settle it easily."

"Why is it that you always cause trouble?" Tessa asked. "It won't take us an hour to get to another city. We can get jackets there!"

"Because," Clary said, turning to look at her with a shrug, "This is _fun."_

* * *

So, obviously, when Clary said that going into a Wal-Mart that has already been entered by some other possibly dangerous band of strangers would be fun, Tessa would have suggested that she be sent in for a mental evaluation if the world was up and running. It was needless to say that when they stepped inside and she said, "Split up, it'll be quicker!" and ran away from her before she could say anything, Tessa was contemplating whether or not she should have been committed as a child; this level of insanity didn't just come in overnight.

She had no other choice than to go her own way, mostly because she lost sight of Clary moments after she ran off. Tessa wasn't worried about her; she knew that Clary could take care of herself. She was more worried about the fact that there were other people inside of the store and she didn't know where they were. Even if they weren't dangerous, she and Clary didn't really need any distractions from their goal of being out of the town and into a new one before the sun went down. They were already seriously running late.

"I'm going to kill her," Tessa muttered under her breath as she looked forward. The store was a mess. Everything around her was in disarray; clothes were strewn all over the floor, along with broken and scuffed toys, old and battered boxes, and the occasional severed limb. Why Clary, of all people, who was short and small, would want to run off was beyond her.

"Fine," Tessa muttered to herself, walking forward. She had her knife sheathed still, not really wanting it out as she was maneuvering through different mounds of shirts and other trinkets that she could break her ankle over. She'd impale herself for sure. "The sooner I get a stupid jacket and the sooner I catch back up with Clary, the sooner we can leave!"

"You know, lady, talking to yourself isn't really a good sign," the voice—obviously a guy's—came from somewhere to her right. She spun on her booted heel and gripped the hilt of her knife, sliding it from her sheath effortlessly. She held it protectively in front of her, every single one of her muscles was tensed as she looked around for the unwelcomed intruder. She didn't see one, though. All she saw were aisles that had been knocked over like dominos, clothing racks, most of which were no longer standing, and a banner advertising for a sale for some clothing line that was only being held up by one string; the other end was brushing against the ground.

He stepped out from behind the banner. He was about twenty feet away from her, and the entire store was casted into shadows, so most of his features weren't sharp enough for her to make out at such a distance. The only things that she could see for sure were the piercing blue eyes that were looking at her with the same level of distrust that she felt.

"Who are you?" she demanded. She didn't like the casual manner that he was just standing in.

He smiled at her, though she could tell that it wasn't a warm one, and crossed his arms. "Why would I tell you that?" he demanded. "Isn't the rule _ladies first_?"

"Shockingly," Tessa said, "I'm not in much of a sharing mood at the moment. I also asked nicely," she looked down at the weapon that she was holding. "Don't think that I'm going to do that again."

"You need to work on your communication skills," the boy informed her coolly, taking a step in her direction. "That isn't how you make friends."

"I don't need you as my friend," Tessa snapped at him, not liking that he was moving toward her, but she wasn't willing to show intimidation by backing away. "I need you to back off and tell me what kind of stupid death wish you have."

"It's more of a suicidal thing," he said with a shrug, "or at least that's what my cousin, Jace, says."

"Your cousin," Tessa said slowly, "is he here?"

"Nah-ah-ah," the blue-eyed boy shook his head at her, his cold smile turning more crooked as he took another step forward. "I'm not that easy to interrogate, though, if you're going to use the other methods you're going to have to take me out to dinner a few times first."

Tessa was silent as she looked the boy over. He still had the distrusting look in his eyes despite the crooked grin, but she still had to stay silent for a moment to ensure that she'd heard what she thought that she'd heard.

"I think," Tessa snapped at him, "that this is a good time for you to be serious."

The boy's smirk only seemed to grow. "This is serious for me."

Tessa looked away from him for a moment, hoping that Clary would just pop out of the shadows and they could figure out what to do about this smart-mouthed idiot before leaving. Sadly, she came up empty-handed in her searches.

"Looking for someone?" the boy asked. His tone was smug, almost as though he knew something that she didn't. His next words confirmed this feeling. "Short, like five foot three, red hair, pale skin, freckles?"

This time Tessa took a step forward herself, clenching her jaw together as she clasped the hilt of her knife more firmly. "Where's my sister?"

"Your sister is she?" the boy mused as though he found her more humorous than anything else. "You two don't look very much alike."

"Look," Tessa said to him, her patience finally snapping. "Either you tell me where she is, or I'll stab you with my knife!"

"You mean that you were trying to intimidate me with that little prick that you've got there?" he questioned with a humorless laugh as he nodded toward her weapon. "I figured that you were using that to cut down any little streamers that were in your way."

"Cute," she said to him dryly. "We'll see if you find this to be a prick when I stab you in the chest with it!" She took a step forward and held it right above her waist so that the point was angled toward his chest. "Tell me where Clary is!"

The boy shrugged. "I just saw her run off; she disappeared." He looked at her silently for another couple of seconds before remarking, "Just for the record, I answered that because I _wanted_ to, not because I was scared by your little letter opener."

"I don't have time for this," Tessa groaned. "I need to go and get far away from you and your cousin, who might or might not be here!"

"Most women don't want to get away from me so quickly," he looked down at his body, as if checking his own figure out. "You hit your head or something?"

"Clearly you have," she replied venomously. "Just leave me alone, and stay away from me and my sister."

Before the boy could even so much as get the smug smirk off his face, there was a loud clattering noise, and two yells. The boy's eyes widened and he swore under his breath. "Jace!" Tessa saw his hand reach around to his back and a moment later, she heard the swishing noise of something coming out of a sheath. It was a large and wicked sword.

She couldn't even find it in herself to concentrate on that. She inhaled sharply and took off toward the back part of the store, where she was pretty sure that she heard the noise from.

* * *

_**~Will~**_

So taunting and tormenting the admittedly pretty girl that was just standing on top of a large pile of clothes was probably a bad idea, but he really couldn't help himself. He'd seen her sister dash away from her excitedly, and he'd already been separated from Jace to pick up all the different things on their lists, so he'd been thinking about keeping her away from his cousin because of the shorter girl that was bounding around somewhere in the store.

When he'd heard his cousin and a girl—probably the redhead—scream, he'd immediately dropped his joking demeanor for a more concerned one. He swore quietly, and more loudly, "Jace!" He pulled his sword out of its sheath. By that time, the girl with the brown hair and grey-blue eyes had turned around and started racing toward the noise. She was a total stranger racing toward his cousin. Will felt his foot push off the ground and he found himself darting after her.

He hadn't realized how tall she'd been atop the pile of junk that she'd been on. She was pretty lengthy; five foot ten, at the least. It made sense that she was so quick on her long legs. Will caught up to her after a couple of seconds, but, unlike his first instinct, he didn't stop her. Instead, he simply ran with her. She had her sister back there as well…_Clary_; that was what the girl had called her.

Will tripped and stumbled over a curtail rod, some sheets, a large pillow with half the stuffing scattered around it. The girl next to him had managed to nimbly dodge most things, but she'd still managed to trip herself up, going so far as to fall a couple of times. Will didn't so much as cast her a second glace as he moved forward. He heard her feet hitting the floor as she began moving again.

"Will!" he heard Jace's voice call toward him loudly. His cousin's tone was rarely anything but controlled, but this time it definitely had some obviously panicked.

He made it past a messy row of fallen aisles and saw his cousin's shaggy blond hair, and fit frame perched over a prone form.

"What the hell'd you do to my sister?" the girl behind him screeched. Her voice was so loud that he winced slightly at the noise.

Will turned around and managed to catch her in midair as she tried to jump at Jace. He threw her unceremoniously to the ground and turned to look at his cousin. "Jace," he said, his voice deadly calm, "What happened?"

"She saved my life," Jace said, turning to look at a dismembered corpse in a battered suit that was lying in a heap, black blood oozing from the stump that his head was going to be. "We were arguing one moment, and then she pushed me out of the way." He looked up at Will. "It scratched her."

The other girl was back on her feet, and Will hadn't even realized it until he felt something heavy and sharp hit the back of his head. He saw stars as he stumbled forward a few steps, just managing to regain his balance before he toppled into Jace. He spun around in time to have the brunette smack his sword out of his hand and point the knife to his neck. He felt the sharp steel sitting coldly against the skin. Immediately, his hands went up as he tried to think of something to say that might reconcile with her before he literally lost his head.

"What the hell?" Jace's voice came out behind him. "Are you crazy, lady?"

"Shut up!" Will snapped at his cousin. "I like having a head, Jace!" He looked at the girl in her narrowed eyes and said, "If you promise not to kill me, we can get your sister the medical attention that she needs."

"Why should I trust you?" she sneered.

"Think about it," Jace said as he slowly rose from the ground. "If I wanted to hurt your sister, I wouldn't have killed the zombie that tried to take a bite out of her shoulder."

"No," she snapped at him. "You just let him stick a handful of claws in her!"

"I wouldn't have let it do anything," Jace cried. "Listen…Tessa?" he looked at her with a raised eyebrow, as if making sure that he got the name right. "She's hurt, and if she doesn't get medical attention, she's going to die. We have a—"

"Jace!" Will snapped at him angrily. He might not have been able to glower at his cousin, but he was hoping to pass on his anger to him by sound alone. "Is there something wrong with your head? You don't just give out that kind of information to any pretty face that's looking for it!"

"I'm not looking for any information from you," Tessa snapped at him, her knife digging a little more firmly into his throat. "Keep talking, Jace."

"She saved my life," Jace told Will quietly. "I can't just let her die."

Will sighed, but knew that he was right.

"We have a small community of people a bit further out," Jace said to Tessa. "We have a few people there that are really good with medicine that can heal her up. She isn't the first scratch we've seen."

When Tessa didn't remove her knife from his throat, Will tentatively reached his hand forward, placing it on her arm. He didn't look away from her, and was afraid that he'd miscalculated his move when she tensed up. "Look, Tessa," he said, trying to keep his voice level and reasonable. "I can see that you care a lot about your sister, so don't let your stubbornness be the thing that gets her killed."

That finally did it. She slowly lowered her knife, wrenching her arm away from him. "Fine," she said. "Let's go." Will didn't miss the obvious mistrust that was shining in her eyes. He couldn't blame her, though. After all, Clary had hurt herself with Jace.

"Alright," Will said. "We can all fit into the truck."

Tessa moved forward, most likely intent on grabbing her sister, but Jace said, "I think I can handle her." Before anyone could say anything else, he'd grabbed her behind her neck and under her knees. He stood up and looked at them. He shrugged at Tessa, who was looking at him coldly, "It's the least I can do."

"Don't try anything funny," she snapped at him.

Jace looked at Will, raising an eyebrow. The message that he sent was loud and clear: _Crazy!_ "Grab your sword, man," he said to Will. "You're going to need to pick up my and your slack."

"Let's save the trash-talking for later," Will suggested quietly so Tessa didn't hear him. He leaned down and picked up his preferred weapon. "Right now, we need to start thinking up an excuse to feed Luke about bringing in two outsiders."

* * *

**Disclaimer: I own none of the characters, but the plot is mine!**

**Hey guys! I hope that you all liked the first chapter. I'm excited about this one and I'm hoping that you all are too. There's plenty more to come after this! It's 2:30 in the morning where I'm at, so I'm not really going to make this a lengthy author's note this time. Maybe later. Review on your way out and let me know what you think! Let me know if the story itself is something that I should even bother finishing.**


	2. Never Stop at Creepy Gas Stations

**I just wanted to thank you all for the reviews that I received for the first chapter. 14 was an amazing number, and I was so excited, I replied to all of them that I could, but as for the Anons, Thank you all so much for your kind reviews. I'm sorry that I can't reply to you like I did the others.**

* * *

_**Chapter Two: Never Stop at Creepy Gas Stations**_

* * *

_**~Clary~**_

When she'd split from Tessa on a sudden whim, it hadn't been one of her best and brightest moments, but she was more than capable of taking care of herself just like her sister was. Besides, she knew that the people who'd dismembered the corpses were inside of the building somewhere and she wanted to see them and say hello. She didn't have to trust them to want to indulge in the act of human contact with someone that wasn't her sister. Of course, she still walked into the general direction of the clothes and coats. The floor was covered in miscellaneous objects, so it wasn't as though she could really tell what department would be more promising for a jacket versus a bra at the moment.

She was kneeling down beside a small pile of what looked to be curtains, pushing past them, hoping to at least find something useful when she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. When she looked up, she saw gold. His hair, his skin, his eyes. The tall boy seemed to just _glow_ a golden hue. Clary didn't know if she was practically drooling over the way that he looked simply because he was the first guy that she'd seen that hadn't had his skin practically falling off him in almost three years, but she liked what she saw. His angular facial features made her fingers itch to pick up a pencil and try and capture his likeness on paper, something that she hadn't felt like doing in a long time.

"As much as I like it when a pretty girl stares at me," his voice carried across the distance that she realized wasn't so large, "I think we might need to talk."

She had been so enamored by him that she hadn't realized that he was staring back at her, a smirk beginning to curl its way on to his face. His voice rang in her ears, there was something funny about it; not that it was deeper and a lot more masculine than what she was used to hearing compared to her sister's tinkling voice, but the way that it sounded foreign, as if he'd moved to the United States before the apocalypse had started. As soon as she began speculating about it, she remembered that he was a stranger. Tessa's number one rule about strangers rang in her ears and she felt her heart hammering slightly as she stood up abruptly, taking a step backward.

"There's nothing to talk about," she said. "Why don't you turn around and walk off?"

"You seemed pretty okay a moment ago when you were practically undressing me with your eyes," he informed her dryly. He crossed his arms over his chest and looked at her with a smug grin. He walked forward and Clary could see the hilt of two long knives extending from sheaths on either side of his waist.

She looked down at her own knife that was sheathed on her own waist. It wasn't as large as his, and that made her nervous. She immediately retreated a couple of steps and said, "You're awfully arrogant."

"I'm wounded," he replied as he took another step forward. "I was merely stating an observation that I'd made."

Why had she taken off from Tessa again? Oh yeah! To talk to the same guy she was now trying to get away from.

"Okay," he said, holding hands up as he took another step forward. She was about to respond with another one back when he said, "I don't want to hurt you. I just want to talk. It's been a while since I've seen a new face."

"You have no idea," Clary found herself agreeing to his words. "The only person that I've seen is my sister, Tessa for the past two years."

The blond boy smiled and said, "I guess that makes me a nice change, then."

Clary looked at him, feeling the sense of mistrust starting to kick in again. Why had she given the information about her sister out?

"Nice change or not," she said, her voice coming out firm, "I still don't know you, which means that I don't trust you."

"Well then let's talk and get to know one another," he said as though it was the simplest thing in the world. "I mean most girls world die to be in your shoes, even now." Clary continued to gape at him. She couldn't believe that he was being this arrogant. "We can start with the basics. My name is Jace Herondale; what's yours?"

She opened her mouth and was about to answer him. She realized what she was about to do just in time and stopped herself. "None of your business," she snapped at him instead.

"I thought we were sharing," he confided in her, his eyes sarcastically wide. "It's what you wanted, wasn't it?"

"I want you to go away!" she snapped at him.

He didn't go away. Instead, he took another step in her direction and came up to where he was standing directly in front of her; there might have been a foot of space between them. "Don't be like that, Red."

"_Red?" _she demanded.

"Well, yeah," he shrugged. "You know, like your hair. You refuse to share your name, so I had to improvise."

"You're an idiot," she decided, shaking her head. She moved to turn around, not even really intimidated by him anymore. Before she could, however, she saw something shift slightly behind him. She frowned and looked around his shoulder since she was much too short to look over it.

"And you're clearly in your own little world," Jace observed. "You mind telling me what's so interesting about it?"

Clary was about to tell him in excruciating detail where he could shove those condescending questions when she saw the movement again. She caught a small portion of a silhouette and knew exactly what it was. She cursed loudly and jumped toward Jace, not even really sure _why_ she was helping him. The blond was too surprised to do anything other than yelp and fall sideways and away from the threat. Both of them rolled to the ground.

She felt a pain explode in her shoulder before she even hit the earth and knew what happened. She felt dread pooling in her stomach as she laid halfway on top of Jace's firm upper body. "Jesus, Red," she heard him say to her past the pain that was starting to take over her entire consciousness, "you didn't strike me as a handsy type of girl."

She groaned in response, her vision rapidly dimming. Jace said something else, his voice so sharp that she was pretty sure that he was swearing despite the fact that she didn't hear a word he said. She felt herself being pushed aside, and when she hit her shoulder, she felt herself scream bloody murder from pain, and she was pretty sure she heard Jace call out that stupid nickname he'd used for her. After that, she didn't feel anything. She only felt and saw darkness.

* * *

_**~Jace~**_

He was stuffed in the backseat of Will's pickup with Clary. The unconscious redhead was lying down with her head on his lap. He felt guilt pooling around in his stomach every time he looked down at her paling face. Tessa was sitting shotgun while Will was driving. Jace noticed the way that the sun-visor was down on her side of the truck and the flap that revealed the mirror was pulled up. She kept looking in it, and he had a feeling that she wasn't looking at her reflection when she did. Judging from the angle that she had it at, she was able to see him and Clary whenever she wanted.

He had neglected to inform Tessa that Clary would probably still be conscious and most likely cursing at him if he had been watching his surroundings instead of teasing her like an idiot. Somehow, the pit in his stomach, which had already felt bottomless, seemed to get impossibly deeper as he allowed his thoughts to broaden.

He looked away from both of the girls and out of the windows. He spotted several walking corpses limping toward the truck as it sped down the highway. Their arms were stretched out toward it, and though Jace couldn't make out their faces due to the speed that the truck was going, he could imagine that their mouths were open as though they were preparing to chomp down on a meal that would never come. Suckers!

He looked back down at Clary after a few more moments, quickly becoming bored with zombie-watching. The top part of her shirt, on her left shoulder was shredded open and Jace could see a mixture of blood and infection oozing from the wound. He could only imagine the pain that she would be in if she was awake. He wouldn't wish it on his worst enemy.

Jace placed his hand on the skin around it and grimaced slightly. "Will," he called up to the front seat. "We're going to need something to clean this wound with and fast. The infection's spreading faster than we can drive."

"I will have you know that I am perfectly capable of driving like a madman," his cousin informed him smartly.

"Will," Jace said; his tone had a warning note to not mess around in it.

"I know, Jace" he sighed.

"Well then what are we going to do?" Jace asked.

"We didn't pick any first aid supplies while we were raiding the store," Will told him from the driver's seat. His voice was calm, but Jace could see where his hands had tightened on the steering-wheel to the point that his knuckles were whitening. He was obviously concerned.

"Do you have any in that trailer of yours?" Tessa demanded

They were pulling a trailer, which was only halfway full of necessities. "If there was any in the trailer," Jace said, trying his best to keep patient. "I would have told Will to stop and I would have grabbed the supplies to clean it with a while ago. Actually, I would have done it before we left."

"Why didn't we grab any before we left?" Tessa demanded.

"Did you see the state of the store?" Will asked her, his patience seemingly effortless. He took his eyes off the road for a second to cast her a reassuring smile before looking away and saying, "It would have taken too long. Don't worry; we can stop at the next gas station. They might have something that we can use."

* * *

Jace would have rather let Will roundhouse kick his teeth out than to admit that he didn't want to stop at the next gas station that came up, but he really didn't. The windows were shattered, all of the glass lying on the ground in front of the stone brick building in small shards. The concrete that the entire parking lot, including where the four gas pumps were sitting a bit farther out, was bathed in a reddish-brown tint. It was as thought a sea of blood had come through and washed everything away, breaking the glass while it was at work.

"Alright," Will said, turning off the truck and turning around to look at Jace. "The girls can stay in the truck; you and I can go inside and see what we can find."

Jace nodded and shifted and lifted Clary's head so he could lay her on the seat comfortably when he got out. "No!" Tessa snapped, making him pause.

His eyes snapped up so that he could get a good look at either her expression or Will's. He managed to get a glimpse at both. Tessa was scowling at Will as he looked back at her, clearly alarmed. "Is there something wrong?" Will questioned slowly. "I figured that I was doing you a favor."

"What part of _I don't trust you_ don't you get?" she demanded heatedly.

"We're trying to save her life," Jace said, leaning forward slightly; his tone was nearing exasperation. "Explain to me what possible reason would we have for keeping you in a truck _away_ from possible threats and with your sister if we were trying to hurt either of you?"

"Fine," Will said, his voice starting to strain slightly. It was obvious that he was starting to lose his patience as well. "If it will make you feel better, Tessa, you can come with us, since I figure that you don't trust either of us alone in the truck to watch your sister, and we can lock the doors. I'll even give you the keys."

She slowly started nodding, and the only thing that Jace could think of was _holy trust issues._ "Fine," she said

Will turned the truck off and pulled the keys out of the ignition. Instead of handing them to her immediately, he opened the door and jumped out. He turned around and looked at them expectantly. Jace lifted Clary's head all over again with one hand and opened the door with the other. He slid out carefully and shut it behind him. Tessa was at his side a second later, her door shut as well. A few of the undead were limping their way, but they were maybe thirty feet or so away and it would take them a moment or two to get to them. He heard a familiar click and knew that Will had locked the doors behind them.

Silently, he gestured for Tessa to lead the way toward his cousin and the gas station. Will walked out to the front of the truck and jingled the keys out in front of him. "Catch," he said calmly before gently throwing them into the air. She stretched her hand out and caught them a moment later. Jace frowned at them, not really having a chance to examine them before she stuffed them into her pocket. Something looked off about the keychain, though.

"You guys go ahead inside," Jace nodded toward the glassless doors of the building. "I'll take care of the undead outside."

Will smiled at him, but Jace swore he saw a flash of concern in his eyes. "Don't let your guard down again, little cousin. Imagine the damage that Alec would suffer if he found out that his best friend was killed."

Jace pulled both of his knives out of their sheaths. "I'll be fine," he said. "You two be careful." He turned around and started walking toward the first out of the small hoard, which was only about seven or eight feet away from him. He hadn't heard footsteps yet despite the fact that he'd gotten close enough to the first zombie, one that looked like he would have been in his early twenties if he'd been alive. "Hurry up," he barked as he slashed his knife upward, severing an outstretched arm. "We don't have all day!" He reared back and kicked the zombie in the stomach, causing it to stumble backward around the same time that its arm hit the ground.

As he moved forward to finish the walking corpse off, he heard the pitter-patter of footsteps rushing inside. He looked around as he drove his blade into the zombie's skull. As he wrenched it out, he counted the remaining company that he had to deal with. Ten or so of them were still stumbling around, and there was no telling what would show up by the time that he was finished. He sighed as he stepped over the first body; it was going to be a long stop.

* * *

_**Tessa:**_

Will insisted on entering the building first. He had a flashlight in one hand and his sword ready to swing in the other. She followed him closely, unsure of what else to do considering the fact that he had the light. The sun was slowly starting to sink behind the forest that was maybe a hundred or so yards behind the station. It was fairly dark inside and Tessa didn't want to stumble into anything dangerous.

Then again, trusting Will at the moment probably wasn't exactly safe; it was just necessary.

His footsteps echoed through the silent air. His light was flashing around the entire place so quickly that it made her dizzy, though he didn't seem to have a problem keeping up with it.

"Everything seems to be clear," Will muttered to her. "We need to go and check behind the counter for the kit."

"How can you tell?" Tessa demanded as she strained her eyes to see. Everything was so dark that it was practically impossible to make anything out. "There're aisles all around here, what if there're stragglers hidden behind them?"

"It's possible," Will said. She saw his silhouette nod, though he didn't seem too concerned about it. "We can take care of them if they come out and try to attack us. As for right now…if Jace says that something's bad, it's not exactly good."

The reminder of her sister knocked out in the car was enough to shut her up. Will took her silence as a confirmation and walked forward again. "Come on, Tessa," he said. "I don't think that you want to break your neck because you can't see." He turned around to look at her and said, "Why don't you take the flashlight?"

Before she could say anything, the long metal rod was in her hands. "Put your little letter opener away while you're at it," he nodded toward her knife. "I think I've got us covered."

"I—"

"If you say one more thing about not trusting me," Will said, his voice turning sharp for a moment, "I'm not going to be as patient. I'm in here to help Clary because she saved my cousin's life. I know and respect that you're just trying to be protective of her, but this is ridiculous."

She scowled at him, though she had a feeling that he couldn't see her face anyway. Her cheeks were burning and she felt as though she was a scolded child. She just nodded curtly and shoved her knife back into her holster. She thought she heard Will mutter something about women under his breath, but she couldn't be entirely sure. _Men!_

She kept the flashlight trained at their feet as they moved toward the counter top. Miscellaneous items, such as cans, molded food in packaging, and plastic bottles filled with different soft drinks were scattered across their walking path. She knew that if she hadn't had the light, she would have fallen. Part of her wanted to thank Will for his foresight, but another, way larger, part of her was too stubborn.

They made it to the counter quickly and she stepped forward, walking past him so she could shine the light over the cash register and down behind the barrier. What she saw caused her stomach to churn. She literally turned around, feeling her stomach heaving, and hurled on the floor.

"What is it?" Will demanded. His voice was a bit louder than was necessary and thanks to that, she didn't have to answer. There was an inhuman moan from behind the register and she heard the sound of the floor creaking. Slowly she stood back up, her stomach still rolling, and turned the light back to the counter. "I figured you'd have a stronger stomach than that," Will remarked tauntingly.

"Shut up," Tessa snapped, not in the mood. She grabbed her knife out of her pocket just as Will walked forward. The zombie mindlessly walked toward them, only to be pushed back by the counter. It moaned out a protest as it tried to move toward them a second time.

"Not very bright," Will mused. He didn't wait for her to answer; he simply brought his sword around and slashed it across the creature's neck, severing its head from its body. She heard two soft and wet thumps as the dismembered head and body hit the ground. "Tessa," Will said quietly, his taunting tone gone from his voice. "If you want to go outside and wait that'll be fine—"

"That's not why I got sick," she told him impatiently. She kept her flashlight trained on the countertop. "It's what's behind there," she explained, her voice suddenly quiet and weak. The thought of what she saw made her stomach churn again and she was glad that she hadn't eaten too much that morning.

Will's form snapped back to the counter almost immediately. "What did you see?" his voice was quiet, and Tessa could tell that he was afraid.

"I-it was eating a child," she said _with blond hair_, her voice quavering slightly. That was just a little too close to her brother, who they hadn't seen since the day of the breakout. For once she was slightly glad that Clary was knocked out in the truck; she had no idea how her sister would have taken it. She could see the gory scene in her head and it made her tremble slightly, all of the crimson that was lying around the body had been shiny and fresh. Whoever the child was, he must have just run in here to hide from the undead.

Will nodded, his shoulders slumping forward slightly; he clearly didn't like the idea of a kid dying such a violent death. "Okay," Will said; his voice was a strained calm. "I'm going to have to go behind there and see if a kit is back there. Why don't you hand me the flashlight and walk back outside and see if Jace needs anymore help?"

"I—"

"I'm going to have to put it down before it comes back to life," Will said. Tessa swallowed and looked at him, feeling as though she was about to hurl. "I don't want to do that when you're in here."

"I'm not weak," she defended herself, suddenly feeling ashamed for vomiting on the floor. "I can take care of myself."

"This isn't about taking care of yourself," Will told her. "I barely know you and I can already tell that you're far from weak. Please just go and wait outside."

Tessa didn't say another word. She just reached over and handed him the flashlight. He took it silently and looked at her, as though waiting for her to go away. She took the hint and turned around, walking out feeling weak and useless.

Jace was rounding up the last of the stragglers maybe twenty feet from the entrance of the station. He had a smile on his face and his golden eyes were lit up as though he was having the time of his life. He was having fun fighting zombies. It was a preposterous thought that she couldn't fathom.

She walked toward him tentatively, realizing that he could slip up and accidentally impale her with one of his long knives in the heat of the moment. She saw that there were maybe three left, but as she got closer to him, she got a view of the side and back of the station.

"Hello, Tessa!" he shouted cheerfully as he turned to the side to decapitate a zombie in a muumuu. "Is dear cousin Will being stubborn?"

Tessa nodded in confirmation taking her knife out as she stepped up to her first opponent. It swung a hand clumsily at her, she step-sided it and as it was turning to try and come after her again, she drove her knife into its temple. She pulled it out and said, "Judging from your tone, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that he's like this most of the time."

"You get used to it," Jace replied. "Of course, stubbornness is one of the many flattering Herondale traits."

"Is that his last name?" Tessa asked, realizing that she didn't know his and that they didn't know hers.

"Yeah, Jace and William Herondale at your service."

She felt a hand grab at the back of her shirt and didn't even look as she drove her knife over her shoulder. Whatever had latched on to her fell to the ground, taking her knife with it and tearing a large hole in the fabric, much to her annoyance.

Jace whistled and said, "Damn, remind me never to sneak up on you!" Tessa turned around and ducked down to hastily retrieve her weapon. She didn't bother replying to Jace; though she had a feeling what he said was meant as a compliment.

She started to stand up, but heard a strange whistling sound. She yelped at the noise and dropped to her knees again immediately. She looked up and saw that Jace only had one knife in his hand, and was looking past her with a small frown.

"Looks like I accidentally missed one," he remarked before turning around as a large and rather fat zombie stumbled into his striking range.

Tessa turned and saw with a thudding heart that a zombie that used to be an elderly woman in a tattered floral dress had been maybe a centimeter of taking a bite out of her calf. She now had a large knife sticking out of her skull. Jace's knife. He'd saved her life.

She sighed in relief as she pushed herself back to her feet and grabbed his knife and her own as three zombies came stumbling her way. She saw that they were still trickling out from behind the gas station, and was worried about how many more there could be. It didn't matter, though; she would keep fighting them off until Will got out with the supplies to help Clary.

* * *

_**Will:**_

He hadn't wanted to be so rude to Tessa when he told her to leave, but she was so stubborn that being curt and frank with her seemed to be the only way to get her to understand. She didn't like people sugarcoating anything for her, that he could already tell and it was a trait that he respected, but it was also one that made me want to pull his hair out of his scalp at the same time. As he watched her walk out, the only thing that he could really think was that he was glad that they were only going to the colony together, after she was there they wouldn't have to see too much of each other. If he had to be around her and her argumentative personality all 24/7, he would probably have some sort of mental break down and throw himself into a crowd of bloodthirsty zombies. Especially if her sister was anything like she was, which was very likely.

He vaulted himself over the counter with ease and landed nimbly on the other side, his light shining on the ceiling for a moment before he steadied himself and was able to look down. He immediately had to look away from the carnage, grimacing as he took in shallow breaths from his mouth and released them from his nose. Tessa really hadn't been overdramatic when she'd hurled; his own stomach felt a little queasy.

The boy only looked to be around seven years old. His eyes were shut tightly and Will could see that his fists were still clenched in death. The blond hair on top of his head looked like it was the same shade as one of his friends back at the colony, though it was smeared in blood so badly that it was pretty impossible to tell for sure.

Of course, the rest of the boy's body was pretty indistinguishable. It was torn apart and a lot of it was missing. Will purposely adverted his eyes, not wanting to know the full extent of the carnage in detail. He didn't know if he would cry, which was not exactly manly, or puke as Tessa had. Instead, he just looked at the clenched eyes of the child as he walked toward him. He saw that he was beginning to move around slightly; the poor guy had already turned, which begged the question: how long had they been feeding on him? Will swallowed back that thought along with the bile that was starting to come up his throat. He felt so sick.

"I am so sorry," he told the child just as he opened up its blank and deadened blue eyes. Then he brought his sword down, ending the child's second life before it had really begun.

He sighed and stepped over the child, pulling his sword out of his head as he went. There was a dusty white box shoved in the corner at the far end of the counter. He rushed forward and all but jumped on it. He yanked it up and saw a huge red cross on the outside. He plopped it on the counter and flicked the rusted locks open. The hinges creaked as the old box open, but Will sighed in relief as he spotted what looked to be fresh and clean supplies.

He closed it, earning another loud creak. He let his flashlight shine forward, and flinched. There was a straggler stumbling toward him at what looked like a limping jog. He swore at the feeling of adrenaline that was rushing through him from the fright and brought his sword around decapitating the body before it could make it to the counter. He jumped forward and pushed himself over the wood again, hitting the ground just after the body. He reached over and grabbed the kit before rushing out of the store.

Part of him wanted to take the boy and bury him, though he had no idea if he would even have the stomach, and another, much more logical part, knew that there were probably millions of boys out in the world that looked just like him that had suffered the same fate. Burying him would change nothing. Besides, they had to get Clary fixed up, and sitting around burying a body was going to get her killed, which might make Tessa lose it and kill him and Jace.

"Let's go!" Will shouted over the moans and groans of maybe twenty limping zombies. Tessa and Jace seemed to be backing up little by little, taking out three or four with every inch that they gave.

"Where are they all coming from?" Will demanded.

"I don't know," Jace snapped as he decapitated a zombie in a sundress. "Are you going to help or just stand there like chopped liver?!"

"We need to go!" Tessa cried as she ducked under a clumsy swing of an arm and stabbed the man in the business suit in the temple. "If we keep this up, we're going to get hurt and then we're not going to be able to help Clary!"

"Fine!" Jace relented kicking out with the flat of his foot at a zombie with a long and curly beard that was halfway ripped off his face, and had on what looked like hunting gear for clothes. "Let's go then!"

"I'll get in the back and—"

"No," Jace said, his voice insistent, "I've got her!"

"Jace knows everything, it's one of his annoying qualities," Will said. "He's quite good with first aid.

Simultaneously, Jace and Tessa both turned around and sprinted toward the truck. Will began running there as well and was in the driver's seat before they were halfway there. He was fishing around in his jeans pocket as Tessa jumped in the passenger's seat. "I've got the keys," she told him, pulling them out impatiently as Jace closed the back door.

"Not this one," Will replied pulling out the truck key from his pocket and starting the vehicle. "Sorry, Tess, but mistrust goes both ways."

He saw her grey eyes hardening as he put the truck in drive and pressed down on the gas so hard that the wheels skidded on pavement for a few moments before gaining enough traction to move them forward. They were off like a shot just as the first zombie hit the cab of his truck with their hands. "Don't screw up the paint job!" Will cried in protest; it wasn't as though he could go and get it fixed up anymore.

"You had the truck key the whole time, you lying son of a bitch!" Tessa snapped. Her voice hit a high note that almost made him flinch; he suppressed the urge.

Instead he simply shrugged and replied. "What guarantee did I have that you weren't just going to steal my beautiful ride and leave us as bait for the stragglers? You think so little of me, so clearly it wouldn't have weighed too heavily on your conscience to do it."

She was silent, and Will knew that he'd gotten her. "I'm not a monster," she told him coldly. "I wouldn't have left you there to be eaten alive."

Will remembered her reaction to the child. He grimaced as he pulled back on to the interstate before looking back over at her and nodding. "I know that now."

He felt anger simmering off her in waves, but it wasn't as bad as when she'd first seen the key. Will was right and she knew it no matter how much she didn't like it. She could be mad at him all she wanted to, but it was because he was telling the truth that she was so upset.

They rode in silence after that, the only sounds that could be heard were their breaths, Jace's infrequent curses, and the sound of scraping and clipping as Jace cleaned Clary's wound.

This was officially the worst road-trip ever.

* * *

**As far as road trips go, this one does seem to be rather sucky. I just wanted to clarify something: the only thing that turns someone in this story is a bite; a scratch only makes the person ill. **

**I'm going to try and make it to where I update on the weekends, but I'm awful with scheduled writing, so you never know! Feel free to leave any complaints, comments, or concerns in the review box, and I will see to them. If you want to see more of something, feel free to let me know. And I want to know: how do you think Clary's going to react to waking up, and who do you think she should wake up around? Tessa, Jace, Simon, Will, Magnus, Isabelle, or Alec?**

**Hopefully this holds you off until next time!**


	3. Never Live in One Place

_**Chapter Three: Never Live in One Place**_

* * *

_**~Clary~**_

When she regained consciousness the first time, she felt sore, sick, and scared all at the same time. It was admittedly terrifying. She was laying on something very soft and very plush, but her mind couldn't really hold on to that because of the pain that was wreaking havoc in her body. She heard noises very vaguely in her ears, but it wasn't anything that she was able to distinguish. Her eyes were still closed and she really didn't have the energy to open them, though she knew that it was probably dangerous for her to remain so still for so long and not know where she was.

Instead of looking around, she figured that maybe she could try and tune into whatever those noises were and figure out where she was that way. It only took a little bit of effort to focus on it, and she realized that it was voices…arguing voices.

"We don't have time for you to sit around and look at the newbie all day, Jace!" a girl's voice snapped. _Jace_, her mind immediately flashed with an image of a smirking blond boy with golden eyes. It was that guy she'd seen in Wal-Mart. She didn't know who the girl was, however.

"I just got back, anyway, Isabelle!" Jace's voice came out sharp; it wasn't anything like how he'd spoken to her. He was obviously either angry or annoyed. "Today would qualify as my day off anyway!"

"And you're choosing to spend it with some random girl instead of your best friend?" she demanded. "Imagine how Alec feels!"

"This _random_ girl that you're talking about," Jace said coldly, "saved my life."

"We've all done that before," Isabelle remarked impatiently. "I don't see why—"

"You all know me; we're friends," Jace informed her, sounding very impatient. "She could have pushed me _into_ the zombie and ran away, saving her own skin. Instead, she pushed me out of the way and almost got herself killed." There was a moment of silence between them before Jace said in a low voice, "Excuse me for wanting to show a little gratitude. If Alec really has that much of a problem with it, then he can come up here and talk to me about it himself."

"You know he won't!" Isabelle exclaimed. "He's going to think that you've chosen this girl over him."

"For the love of God, Iz," he groaned. "When you told me that Alec was gay, I was completely okay with it. When you told me that Alec had a crush on me, I went to him myself and we talked it over. I explained to him that he needed to move on because I don't swing that way; he told me that he was cool with it. We're best friends and that's it. I'm not his mother and I'm not going to step on eggshells around him to make sure that his feelings aren't hurt." She heard a few footsteps as Jace walked toward Isabelle. "Why don't you tell him to go and talk to Magnus, huh? He's been showing plenty of interest in him lately?"

"You're truly a piece of work, Herondale," Isabelle said to him coldly.

"Yeah," Jace snapped right back, "well so are you. I figured that you would at least be grateful that she saved my life; we are friends, after all."

"I am grateful!" Isabelle told him indignantly. "Don't you dare insinuate otherwise!"

"Then don't act as though you feel otherwise," he replied, his voice cool and calm.

Clary heard the sound of feet hitting tile floor and a door slam shut. After that, she didn't really hear anything else as unawareness took her over.

* * *

The next time that she woke up, she felt a lot better. She wasn't hurting nearly as much, though her shoulder was still burning, and her stomach was churning slightly. All in all, much better than the torment that she'd gone through the last time that she'd come around. "My, my, my," a cheerful voice mused from somewhere around her, "looks as if Sleeping Beauty is waking up!"

She didn't know who was calling her Sleeping Beauty, but she imagined that she looked more like a wicked witch than anything remotely elegant. She grunted as she forced her eyes to open, shielding them from the dim light. "Where am I?" she croaked, wincing at the gravelly sound of her own voice. Her throat felt as though a desert had formed inside of it and her tongue was terribly dry along with the rest of her mouth.

"Alicante," a voice to her right answered almost immediately. She slowly turned her head toward the noise and had to squint. Her eyes were still adjusting to the brightness and this man was reflecting light off his neon clothes, making everything impossibly brighter. She blinked harshly and when she opened her eyes again, she was able to see the guy beside her.

He was smiling at her with a bright smile, his hair was spiky and she wondered if the strands would hurt if touched. His eyes were slanted slightly, hinting at some kind of oriental descent. She saw a hint of eyeliner, and if she wasn't mistaken, there was glitter in his hair. Either he was gay, or the people around here were a lot different than what she was used to.

"My name is Magnus," he said as he realized that she wasn't going to fill the empty silence. She had so many questions flying through her head that she was unable to speak because she wasn't sure which one she should ask first. So she simply latched on to the piece of information he'd just handed her and ran with it.

"Magnus," she finally said; her voice was still rough.

He frowned at her and reached over to a small wooden nightstand right beside her bed. He grabbed a red solo cup and reached out to hand it to her. "You must be thirsty; I hear near-death experiences will do that to you."

She smiled at him gratefully as she took the glass from him and raised it to her lips. The water tasted stagnated and was lukewarm, but it was still the best tasting thing that'd passed over her tongue in years. She sighed in relief as she lowered the now empty cup. "Thanks," she said, sounding more like herself instead of a frog. "Your name is Magnus; why does that sound familiar?"

That was when she remembered the conversation that she'd accidentally woken up to between Jace and a girl named Isabelle. Jace had mentioned Magnus liking some guy named Alec. So he was gay after all.

"I don't think I've ever met you," he confided. "Redheads tend to stand out in my mind."

"No," she shook her head before vaguely saying, "I think I remember Jace mentioning your name."

Magnus nodded his head. "I'm the medical assistant around here," he informed her. "I'm here at the moment to make sure that you're sane, okay, and not turning into a flesh-eating monster. You seem to completely pass my exam." He smiled at her, letting her know that it was just a joke. "I imagine that you have a lot of questions, I'll try and answer them all." He gestured to the room around them, "You're in a bedroom of one of the larger homes in the neighborhood; it's where all of the newbies stay until they get situated in to the community. Your sister, Tessa, is being given the grand tour by William Herondale. From what I've heard, you didn't meet him in the store, but he's Jace's cousin, and was the one that drove you here."

"What do you mean _community?_" Clary questioned, her eyebrow raised.

"It's really one of those see-it-for-yourself sort of things," he explained. "I guess I can try and tell you about it." He was silent for a moment, his eyebrows scrunched together in concentration as he tried to place his words carefully. "A bunch of us were in a group about a year back; we were half-starved and running from a small hoard of the undead. We found this community with wrought-iron fencing around the entire thing. The barriers weren't extremely tall, but they were strong and kept the dead a bay. We holed up here and realized that there was potential for the place. We went out and got supplies to fix the fences up, and, in just a little time, the barriers became more and more impenetrable." He smiled at Clary and spread his arms, as if showing off the room again, "eventually, we got this; a community of almost one hundred surviving people."

Clary was silent, slowly digesting the information. "One hundred?"

"Well, I think you and Tessa make like ninety-five, but I like to round up," he shrugged. "You look like your eyes are about to pop out of your admittedly pale head."

Clary felt herself flush slightly as she tried to burrow herself farther into the bed to get away from her embarrassment. "I just didn't think that…that…."

"You didn't think that there were that many people still around," Magnus finished for her, a wide smile. "Well we're here and it turns out that many of the attractive ones are the ones that are left."

"You mean like Jace?" Clary questioned before she could stop herself. She looked at Magnus with wide eyes and she felt as though her own eyes were about to pop out. Her face must have been on fire, but all Magnus did was laugh lightly.

"Yeah, like both Herondale boys, actually. It's a shame that they know how attractive they are," he said with a shrug, "they're both awfully arrogant."

"Yeah," Clary nodded, relaxing slightly. "I remember that very distinctively; it was rather annoying."

"You still saved him," Magnus pointed out.

"Error of judgment halfway to him," she informed him jokingly. "I actually meant to push him _into_ the zombie, but the good and selfless part of me decided to take over."

Magnus snorted and shook his head. "At least you admit that he's a pain in the ass, he has some people thinking that he's infallible." His tone turned a bit darker, and Clary had a feeling that he was talking about one specific boy. Alec, whoever that was. "I'll give him this, though; I had to make him leave and take a nap. He is obviously very grateful for what you did for him."

His expression lightened moments later and he was smiling again. "Well," he said. "I'm going to go and get Ragnor, he's the actual doctor around here, and then I'll go and grab your sister; I imagine that she'll be pleased to see you awake." He got to his feet and sauntered toward the door, different parts of his hair shining depending on where the light hit it. He shot her another smile just before he shut her door behind him.

Clary took a deep and calming breath as she tried to clear her mind, which was jumbled with so much unfathomable information that she was starting to feel dizzy all over again. She pushed it all away for the moment. Tessa was here and okay; she would wait until she talked to her sister to figure out how much she should be freaking.

* * *

_**~Jace~**_

He had been sitting at Clary's bedside for the past five hours; he was exhausted, tired, and worn out. The thought of a bed was so enticing that he was actually daydreaming about it as he looked at her. Every time he would consider leaving to go and take a nap, he would see her shift slightly in her sleep and become excited, sure that she was about to wake up.

He jumped slightly when he heard a light knock on the door. It opened a moment later and he saw Magnus stick his head inside. He smiled tiredly at the older man. "How's it going, Bane?" he asked through a yawn.

"So, so," Magnus replied, stepping inside. "Why don't you go and take a nap?"

"I don't want to leave her alone," he confided. "Could you imagine waking up here when the last thing that you remember is arguing with an idiot before you save his life in an abandoned Wal-Mart?"

"She'd probably figure that said idiot brought her here," Magnus informed him. "Besides, you can't be your normal charming self when you're only halfway awake. How do you suspect to win her over when you look like a zombie yourself?"

"Two things, Bane," Jace said with a laugh. "First, I am not trying to win anyone over; second, I am way too sexy to ever look like a zombie."

Magnus rolled his eyes at Jace and said, "Whatever you say, Herondale. I still think that you should go and take a nap."

Jace sighed and looked back over at Clary, not wanting to argue with him since he'd just finished telling Isabelle off for being so cold.

"I'll even stay with her myself," Magnus offered. He was looking over at Clary with something that resembled interest. "If she wakes up, I'll come and get you."

Jace looked back up at Magnus, his willpower weakening slightly at the promise. "You promise that you—"

"I'm not going to leave her until she wakes up and I promise that I'll come and get you as soon as I can after she is lucid," he said, his tone completely serious. "Don't worry, Herondale." He was silent as he frowned at him suspiciously. "I've never seen you like this."

"A stranger's never been brave enough to risk their life for me when they don't even really trust me enough to tell me their name," he said quietly. "I just want to thank her."

Magnus nodded and smiled at him. "I'll make sure that you're able to," he assured him with a nod of his head. "Just go and sleep before someone stabs you."

Jace stood up and turned to look at Clary one more time before he looked over at Magnus again. "Look," he said quietly, feeling as though it was the only way that he was going to be able to get anything settled. "How…how are things going between you and Alec?"

Magnus' face darkened slightly for a moment before he patched the look up and just gazed at him neutrally, his arms crossed as he walked fully into the room. "Why do you want to know?"

"Because I care about him and want him to be happy," Jace replied without missing a beat. "He isn't going to be happy if he keeps pining after me, and I know that you care a lot about him in ways that I don't, and I figured that he might move on from me if you were there."

"We would be great," Magnus replied, his tone a bit colder than before, "except that he's still pining after you. I'm not giving my all into anything when I know that he's in love with someone else."

"As much as I normally don't care," Jace said with a frown, "why are acting as though it's my fault? I told him that it was useless because I don't like guys. I have Isabelle on my ass because apparently he feels as though I'm going to completely shove him out of my life. I'm pushing for you guys to get together just as much as you are!"

"Calm down," Magnus told him sharply, his eyes flickering to the side. Jace knew that he was looking at Clary's bed. "I was just saying that he's still in love with you. Maybe he thinks that you might change your mind one of these days, or something."

"Well, I'm not," he said. "I'm going to have to talk to him again, clearly, but I figured that maybe if I have to hurt his feelings, you could be there to try and make him feel better."

"We'll see," Magnus said with a slight nod of his head. "As for right now, you need to go to sleep."

Jace gave one curt nod before he left the room. He walked down the long, tiled pathway almost mindlessly and when he got to the staircase at the end, he went down them. He probably could have chosen one of the twenty rooms that were inside of the huge mansion, but decided against it; he wanted his own bed in his own room. The stairs ended at the end of a dark hall in the first floor. He silently walked toward the small bit of light that was shining under the door at the end; it was the living room, which held the door that would get him outside.

He saw the familiar head of messy black hair that could only be his cousin, walking out of one of the smaller buildings on the street. It was the mess hall. He would have stopped to say hello, but he didn't know if he really had it in him to hold a conversation with anyone. Alec wasn't normally this hateful toward anyone, let alone a girl that was knocked out from saving Jace's life. He had a feeling that Isabelle, being the concerned sister that she was stuck her nose into the situation and took more from it than there was to see.

He didn't know Clary well enough to think anything romantically about her; he'd literally had a three minute conversation with her before she'd saved his life. It wasn't as though he was about to bust out a wedding ring.

He was annoyed and the fact that he even had to think about all of this was making him even more so. He finally reached the first house on the street before the gate began. He walked into the living room and saw two people sitting inside. Both had matching shades of pitch black hair. One was Alec and the other was Isabelle. They looked up at him as he closed the door, but Jace just ignored them and walked past their couch and down the hallway. His sweet relief was the first door to the right.

His room was immaculate as always, but he hardly noticed as he collapsed on to his mattress with a soft groan of contentment. Not five seconds later, the sweet relief of unconsciousness claimed him.

* * *

_**~Tessa~**_

The town was the miracle of all miracles. Will was showing her around, introducing her to almost everyone that walked by, Charlotte, Henry, Jessamine, Jordan, Maia, Bat, and the list went on and on and on, most of the names and faces blurring together; she was sure that she would never remember them all.

"You look as though you're about to have a coronary," Will commented. He paused and leaned against the wall of an old hotel building. She could faintly read the sign, _Alicante Inn_. "Tess," Will said loudly.

She jumped and looked back down at him, smiling apologetically. "Sorry," she said. "I'm just a little distracted."

"I can tell," he replied smartly. "If it's Clary, we can go back and see her, but I figured that you'd want a bit of a distraction."

"It's not that," she assured him, still not entirely sure of how to take his kindness. "This is just a lot to take in. I haven't seen a new face in over a year and now I've seen over fifty in the past ten minutes. It's just a bit overwhelming."

Will grimaced slightly at her statement, his blue eyes flashing guiltily. "Sorry," he said, sounding completely earnest. "I didn't really think about that." He rubbed his hand across the back of his neck, seeming uncomfortable. "It was awfully inconsiderate of me."

"It's okay," she said, looking at the ratty building behind him, unable to really handle the electric gaze that he was giving her. They stood in an awkward silence, him regarding her silently and shamelessly with his arms crossed over his chest, and her looking past his shoulder at the filthy wood of the building that he was leaning on, trying not to flush. Where was her fight now? This was still the same boy that had lied to her about the keys, whether he was giving her the grand tour or not!

She mentally swatted that thought out of her head, knowing that she didn't have a right to judge him for that. She might have been very forward with her feelings of mistrust, but she should have figured that he wasn't going to completely trust her right off the bat, especially when she hadn't given him a reason to. She inhaled, about to suggest that they go back to Clary, because clearly a tour wasn't going to work with just him when her head was all over the place, when she heard footsteps hurriedly walking toward them.

Will's eyes flicked off her and looked past her head. His eyes lit up slightly and he grinned. "James!" he said.

Tessa turned around and spotted a man with dark hair, a tanned complexion, and dark, slanted eyes that hinted at a Chinese descent. He was walking toward them with a small, almost shy smile on his face. Immediately Tessa knew that this guy was a lot more reserved than Will Herondale, and yet they were grinning at each other as though they were best friends. As preposterous as the thought was, it was still a possibility.

"Hello, Will," James said, coming to a halt a few feet to the right of Tessa. His arms were crossed as he turned to look at Tessa with a polite smile. He held out his hand and said, "You'll have to forgive William, he lacks any proper social skills in any setting." Tessa uncertainly took his hand and allowed him to shake hers. "My name is Jem Carstairs."

"Tessa," she said. "Tessa Fray."

"It's very nice to meet you, Tessa," he replied with a smile, releasing her hand.

"You too," she said still unsure of what to make of the newcomer.

He turned to look at Will, who was watching them with something akin to amusement. "Might as well wipe that smug look off your face," Jem told Will. "I've come out here with a message."

Will frowned and looked at him with a raised eyebrow. Tessa felt her heart beating a bit more quickly now; what if his message was about Clary. "Luke wants to see you and Ms. Fray, here, in his office."

She saw Will nod in understanding, the smile on his face truly gone. Jem backed away from them with an encouraging nod in her direction as though he could tell that she was nervous. "Don't worry, Tessa. Luke won't bite you…though Will and Jace, on the other hand…" he was silent as he simply shrugged.

"In my defense," Will called to Jem's retreating figure, "Luke thinks I'm certifiable!"

Jem turned around once he was on the other side of the road and replied just loud enough for them to hear, "If you guys didn't act so crazy, people might actually buy that you're sane!"

Will rolled his eyes at his chuckling friend and turned to look at Tessa with a small smile. "Well, Ms. Fray, would you like to meet our mighty leader?"

"Would it make a difference if I said no?" Tessa questioned.

"It wouldn't," Will informed her with a grin. "You're already learning how things work around here."

Tessa just looked back unsmilingly, and Will held his hands in front of him in surrender. "Fine, I won't joke around anymore. There's no reason to worry though; Luke's not a bad guy. Actually, he's one of the better people around here. He earned my respect they hard way, saving my life more times than I can count."

Tessa nodded and looked at the street around her. "So where is his office?"

"It's time to go to the institute," he replied almost immediately.

"What's the institute?" she questioned curiously.

It turned out that the institute was the same building that Clary was sleeping in. The fact that she was a bit closer to her sister, knocked out or not, made her feel a bit better.

Will led her inside, but instead of heading to the stairwell, they stayed on the bottom floor of the mansion. He walked through the living room, which had different posters strewn over the walls, as if the inhabitants were trying to keep the place as homey and familiar as possible. There was a pair of doors on the far end of the living room from the front door and that was where Will moved to. Tessa followed him on his heels, kind of glad that no one else was around; meeting people was beginning to feel like too much. If she could find a way to get out of it, she wouldn't be meeting Luke.

Will got to the door and grabbed one of the fancy brass knobs before he turned around and looked at her with a confident smile.

"Ready to meet him?" Will asked. Tessa didn't have enough time to answer, because he'd already twisted the knob and pushed the door open. Sitting at a desk, looking down at a dingy piece of paper in the center of the wood was a large man. He had scars all over his exposed arms. He looked up, showing a kind face, and a smile that was halfway hidden behind a beard that was the same color of brown as his curly hair.

"Hello," he greeted her, "you must be one of the new girls." He pointed to a seat against the wall of the office. "Sit," he suggested. "I only have a few questions to ask you and then I need to talk to Mr. Herondale on his own."

Tessa nodded and followed Will inside. There were two office chairs against the wall, Will walked over and occupied the one farthest from the door, so Tessa settled next to him and crossed her legs at her ankles as she waited to Luke to begin.

* * *

_**Will:**_

Luke asked her the normal questions: name, age, abilities, skills, intelligence levels, anything and everything that could be used to help the town. Will had heard the interrogation so many times that he just zoned out, wondering what Luke could possibly want to talk to him about.

His last question was what brought him back to life. "Is there a part of the town that you would prefer to stay in once Clary is better?"

Tessa straightened up slightly. "I'm sorry, sir, but I don't know if we're staying."

Luke looked at her with a raised eyebrow from behind his glasses. He didn't show any other expression, though, so Will had no idea what was going on underneath all of that hair. "That's odd," he mused. "Not many people try to leave here, but if you want to go, we certainly won't stop you. I hope you'll stay until your sister is healed, though. I hate the thought of her venturing out in her condition."

"Of course, sir," Tessa replied almost immediately. "I'll contribute anyway that I can while she's under your care. You don't know how grateful I am that you took us in."

"She saved one of ours," Luke replied with a shrug. "It's only what's right."

Tessa smiled at him.

"I hear from Magnus," Luke told her, "that Clary is awake. I imagine that you would like to go and see her."

Tessa nodded rapidly, getting to her feet. She smiled at him and Luke smiled in return. "You know where her room is, right? I just need a few minutes alone with Will here."

She nodded at Luke, but looked back at Will uncertainly, as if asking him what she should do. He nodded his head to her and gestured for her to leave with a swipe of his hand. She nodded silently and walked out. Will got up and closed the door behind her. He turned around, fully prepared for a tongue-lashing about his inability to keep his younger cousin out of danger on raids, or for bringing the two girls into their camps without any warning. He got neither.

Luke was looking up at him tiredly, and only said three words. Three words that confused him to no end, but he obeyed all the same. "Get me Jonathan."

* * *

**So, Clary and Jace finally meet in the next chapter…well, she'll be able to get more than three words out of her mouth before getting knocked out. Why could Luke want Jonathan? If anyone has any guesses, I'd love to hear them!**

**I'm so sorry that I only got back to a couple of people's reviews. I haven't had time to do anything over the week; I was lucky that I managed to type this chapter up. I hope you liked it regardless, and I promise that I'll try my best to talk to you all before next time!**


	4. Never Trust Coincidences

**I'm pretty sure that I replied to all of you. *Fingers crossed that I didn't accidentally miss someone.* Thank you to all who read, reviewed, followed, or favorite on the last chapter; you're all awesome!**

* * *

**_Chapter Four: Never Trust Coincidences_**

* * *

**_~Clary~_**

She was so bored and anxious to see a familiar face that she was about to get up and look around herself, sick or not, when the door opened. The head that peeked in was not Tessa or Magnus, who were the only two people that she found remotely familiar. It was a gorgeous guy with a mane of curly, golden blond hair and wide golden eyes. She recognized him, of course; no one would ever forget a face like that.

It was Jace Herondale, the guy that she'd saved from a zombie; the entire reason that she was even in that room. Her stomach fluttered slightly as he walked all the way in; part of her was pleased that he'd bothered to remember that she even existed, let alone come in to see if she was okay…assuming that was the reason that he was eying her concernedly. He didn't say a word as he shut the door behind him and moved with unconscious graceful movements toward the armchair that was pulled up to her bedside.

He sat without invitation and examined her unabashedly. She looked back at him curiously, feeling more than a little self-conscious. His gaze was strong and piercing, as though he was attempting to look directly into her soul.

"So your name is Clary," he muttered, finally looking down at his hands, which were clasped together as he leaned on his elbows, which were propped on either of his thighs.

Clary nodded silently and found herself looking down as well.

"I have to admit," Jace said, his eyes flickering back up to meet hers, "that the lengths that you went to keep you identity a secret from me was a bit far." He had a small smile on his face, just to let her know that he wasn't exactly serious about what he was saying. "I mean you don't have to play hard to get."

Clary smiled at him, appreciating his humor after everything that had happened. "I didn't mean to be so rude at the store," she admitted. "I just…."

"Don't trust strangers," he finished for her. Much to her surprise, he sounded very understanding. "Your abrasiveness prepared me for your sister's."

"I hope she wasn't too harsh," Clary said, all too aware of her sister's tendency to overreact to things.

"Nah," Jace said casually with a shrug of his shoulders. "She only tried to murder my cousin, Will."

Clary grimaced at his revelation and looked down as she mumbled an apology on Tessa's behalf.

"No need to apologize," Jace said quickly. "She didn't hurt him; he has a rather thick skull. Anyway, no doubt that Will said something to her before I met her that would have ensured that he deserved what he got."

"So he's not angry?" Clary asked weakly.

"Only at me for letting you get hurt," Jace replied easily. "Tessa, on the other hand, is completely forgiven. He's even out right now giving her a tour of the town."

"I thought that Magnus was going out to get them," Clary said with a frown.

Jace shrugged, seeming honest with his ignorance. "I don't know; he came into the house that I stay in, and knocked loudly on my door maybe ten minutes ago. I have to admit that he woke me from an amazing sleep."

"Why did you want him to wake you up?" Clary asked before she could stop herself. She mentally cursed, unsure of how that question would sound to him; hopefully it didn't sound too stupid.

"I wanted to talk to you," he said. His tone wasn't harsh, but she could tell that he figure that the reason should have been very obvious. "You did save my life, after all."

"Oh," she said lamely. She had no idea how she was supposed to answer to that.

"I'll make you a promise," he said after a moment, not really seeming put-out by her lack of response. "Tomorrow, when you're dismissed from bed-rest, I'll take you on a grand tour of the town and all of its amazing perks. I doubt that even Will can give as good of a tour as I can." He was silent, looking at her expectantly; his pretty golden eyes were hypnotic and she found herself slowly nodding.

"Good," he said with a smile. "I'm going to need a way to thank you for saving my life, and I guess that's a start."

"It's not—"

"Don't be ridiculous," he said, cutting her off abruptly. "It's a very big and important deal; it is my life after all." There was the blunt arrogance that she'd admittedly been looking for. He smiled at her, obviously expecting a reply. She would happily have given him one, but the door flew open before she could get a word out of her mouth.

Tessa rushed in, a wild look in her grey eyes. She smiled more widely than Clary had ever seen her smile and quickly walked forward. "Thank god!" her sister exclaimed, making to her bed. Clary sat up and they embraced tightly.

"I'm so sorry," Clary muttered to her quietly. "I never should have run away from you like that; it was so stupid of me."

"I know," Tessa said quietly. "Don't worry, though; everything's going to be fine."

She backed up and Clary realized that Jace was still with them and flushed slightly at the look of discomfort that he was trying to hide.

He pushed himself out of the chair and muttered, "I guess I can just…" he silently gestured toward the doorway.

"There's no need," Tessa said quickly. "If you wouldn't have saved her life with the antibiotics while we were traveling, then she wouldn't be here."

Clary frowned slightly at this revelation and turned to look at Jace, hoping that he could provide an explanation that Tessa wasn't providing.

"It wasn't that big of a deal," Jace shrugged. "Seriously nothing to really get too worked up over."

"Don't be ridiculous," Tessa said. Clary looked over at Jace with a raised eyebrow, knowing all too well that her sister wasn't one for overemphasizing anything. It must have been a pretty big deal. "She would have died before we got here."

Jace smiled over at her sheepishly; it was obvious that he didn't really like gratitude being shown to him all that much. She was surprised by that revelation; he was very arrogant, so he probably should have liked any attention.

"Thank you," she said sincerely, giving him a weak smile. He turned it with an even weaker one of his own and shook his head.

"I think I owed you one," he informed her with a one-shouldered shrug. "It was kind of my fault that you were knocked out."

"I'd say we're even now," Clary said with a half-smile.

"Hardly," he said. "I'm still in your debt, and I'm not about to cheat you out of that."

"It's not that—"

"It's a big deal to me," he cut her off. "Don't think you're going to be able to weasel your way out of my repayment. It's my life, and I want to repay you for saving it."

Clary looked at him exasperatedly and caught a glimpse of desperation cross his features. It made her bite back any argument that she may have had and nod her head. "Fine, Jace," she said. "I won't try and stop you."

He gave her a stronger smile this time and said, "Smart girl," before he walked out of the open doorway and shut it behind him.

"This has to be the strangest group of people that I've ever met," Tessa told her earnestly as she moved to sit in the chair that Jace had just vacated. "They're all like this, so nice and they all really care about one another."

Clary was silent for a moment before saying, "I don't know what it is about this place, but I don't know if I trust it."

Tessa frowned at her. "You've only been in this room. How do you know if you can trust something that you've never seen?"

"It sounds so nice," Clary explained, hoping that her sister would understand. "Think about it, Tessa: the world's gone to hell and there's still a _town_ with almost one hundred people still alive."

"That's a good thing, Clary," Tessa said, patting her on the shoulder gently. "There're more people around than we thought. As much as I refuse to trust any of them, because they're strangers, it's still the kind of hope that we needed all along."

Clary wasn't feeling too hopeful at the moment; at best she was critical. "As amazing as the idea is, I still think that it's too good to be true."

"You think that something's corrupt here?" Tessa asked incredulously. "You think they're evil, or something?"

Clary thought back to Jace, the only person that she knew from the town. Tessa had seen more than her, but she could go off what she could tell by the attractive blond. "I don't think that they're evil," she replied. "I just don't think that it's going to last."

"They have really good fortifications," Tessa replied. "I'm not saying that we need to stay here. I talked to their leader of sorts; he told me that he won't force us to stay, but that we can stay here as long as we like."

"How long is that?" Clary questioned, unsure of what she wanted the answer to be.

"We have nowhere to be; there's no strict deadline to meet," Tessa replied with a shrug. "I guess we can stay with them until you're back on your feet completely. I know that you'll be off bed-rest soon according to Ragnor, but you're still going to need to get back all of your strength." She smiled at Clary and said, "Let's enjoy being safe for a couple of weeks, and then we can see where to go from there."

* * *

**_Jace:_**

He moved down the stairs at a leisure pace; he didn't want to go back to his house yet, certain that Isabelle and Alec would want to talk to him. He didn't really know where Will was, and he was certain that his nerdy friend Simon Lewis was out of the question as well. The poor guy had it bad for Isabelle and he figured that he would be somewhere within twenty feet of her at all times. Sometimes Isabelle annoyed him, especially when it came to Simon. She kept stringing him on, and he allowed her to have that hold on him, keeping him on a leash as he followed her around like a lost puppy.

He made it to the bottom floor, resigned to the boring plan of grabbing something to eat out of the mess hall. Maybe after he ate he would even volunteer to take someone's shift for patrolling the fences….

His thought trail wandered to a stop as he pushed through the living room door from the hallway. Luke's office door was open and two guys were standing just inside, blocking his view of the desk that he imagined that Luke was sitting behind. What was going on?

He walked toward Luke's door instead of the front door, allowing his boredom and curiosity to get the best of him. "Don't lie to me, Jon," he heard Luke snap from beyond the blond head of Jonathan, and the ink head of his cousin.

"I'm not lying," Jonathan said. His large frame tensed up, and Jace heard his tone quaver slightly, though not from anger. "My sister's are dead. My father told me that he saw them and my mother die in my own house. There wasn't anything that he could do for them." Jace could tell by just listening to Jon that he was telling the truth.

He abruptly pushed past Will and Jon and took a seat in one of the two chairs that were against the wall. The three occupants looked over at him for a moment before turning their attention back on one another. Apparently they didn't really care that he was there, not that it mattered.

Luke looked at Jon, who was staring back at him with his face contorted into a pained frown. Jace could see his deep green eyes flashing from sorrow, and his tanned complexion seemed a bit paler than normal, as if thinking about his past made him sick.

After a moment Luke's expression softened to one of understanding. "I'm sorry to hear about that," he said to Jon quietly. "Can you just do me a favor and tell me their names?"

"Clarissa and Theresa Fray," Jon muttered; his eyes cast down to the floor.

"Clarissa," Jace muttered. "Did she go by Clary?"

"Did Theresa go by Tessa?" Will demanded, looking at Jon with widened eyes.

Jon returned his cousin's gaze with a stunned one of his own. "How do you know that?"

"Because Luke wasn't lying," Will said, his lips curling in a smile. "Your sisters are upstairs."

Jonathan didn't wait for anyone to say anything else. He was standing there one second, and as soon as Jace blinked his eyes, he was already out of the doorway. A moment later, he heard the sound of running feet hitting the floorboards of the stairs. Will turned around and poked his head out into the living room with obvious interest.

Jace turned to look at Luke with a raised eyebrow. The bearded man looked back at him with an unsmiling face. "Why so gloomy?" Jace questioned. He had a feeling that it had something to do with Jonathan and the two girls upstairs.

Luke blinked and looked at him with something that looked to be boarder-line impatience. It was clear that he wasn't in a chatty mood. Jace couldn't really care less, but he knew that whatever was making him like this couldn't be good.

Luke finally gave up on their silent stare down, and put his face in his hands. "I'm not sure what those two girls being here is supposed to mean."

"I figured that it meant that they were lucky," Jace supplied smartly. Luke frowned at him, making it clear that his smart aleck comments were not appreciated in the least.

"Then what do you think it means," Will asked, turning back toward them. His blue eyes shone with curiosity and worry.

"I think it might mean trouble," Luke said. He was looking back and forth between Jace and Will.

"How?" Jace demanded. His heart was beginning to pick up its pace slightly and he was concerned that he'd made a mistake saving Clary's life.

"I don't think that they'll cause any harm," Luke clarified, as though he'd read Jace's mind. "I'm just a bit weary."

"Why?" Will asked. He moved to take the seat next to Jace's. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his lower thighs as he looked at Luke with utter concentration. Jace knew that he and his cousin were both trying to figure out what Luke meant by what he was saying.

Luke sighed. "You both are supposed to be some kind of geniuses," he took turns looking sharply at Will and Jace at different times. "It shouldn't be too hard for you to figure out. Just tell me how man coincidences have you seen? Think about it; this is a pretty big coincidence.

"So in most words," Jace concluded slowly. "You don't think this is a purely serendipitous moment."

"No," Luke replied. "Jonathan showing up here, I can almost understand. I knew his parents really well, so it was a coincidence, but not a big one. Then Clarissa and Theresa show up here as well not three months after Jon does," he frowned slightly and shook his head. "Something's going on here, and I want to know what."

* * *

**_~Tessa~_**

She and Clary had been sitting in silence for the better part of five minutes. Both were lost in their own thoughts, and it was relatively peaceful. Of course, nothing can last forever. Tessa was readjusting her position in the armchair, trying to get a little more comfortable, when the door slammed open.

"Tessa, Clary?" a deep voice sounded. She tensed up and turned around, looking at the newcomer. As soon as her eyes landed on his profile, her breath caught and her brain tried to process what was in front of her. She felt prickling behind her eyes despite the fact that she was still trying to figure out what was going on.

The first thing that she took in was tousled white-blond hair, and then the bright green eyes, which were widened and maybe just a little watery. He had tanned skin, and a much larger build on him than she remembered. The last time that she'd seen this boy was when he had been a gangly teen at the age of sixteen.

"J-Jon?" Tessa breathed, still struggling to make sense of what was happening. "You're supposed to be dead."

His opened mouth as if to answer, but just closed it instead, choosing to just grin at her and Clary. Before anyone could say anything else, he lurched forward and engulfed Tessa into a hug. He dragged both of them over to the bed, and she felt herself leaning backward a little before Clary's shoulder dug into hers. Both of them were bound together tightly as Jon forced them into a group hug. Tessa wasn't complaining, and neither was Clary. She hugged Jon back as tightly as she could and buried her face into his chest. She felt his cheek against her hair in the space where she and Clary were separated.

"How are you alive?" Jon asked, his voice muffled. "Dad told me that he saw you guys and mom get eaten alive by a hoard of monsters."

Tessa froze and pushed away from him slightly so that she could see his face. Clary did the same and Tessa saw tear tracks on her cheeks. No doubt she had the same on hers.

"How could dad have told you that?" Tessa questioned slowly. She felt Jon's arms drop and he took a step backward, running his fingers through his hair, making it more tousled than before. "You haven't seen him since the first day of the outbreak. He died over a year ago."

Jon shook his head. "No, he just died a few months ago. He told me that you guys and mom were killed by zombies and that there was nothing that he could have done to save you."

"When did you see him?" Clary asked, sounding as confused as Tessa felt.

"A little over a year ago," Jon admitted. "It was really lucky; dad and I happened to be in the same town and walked into the same drug store."

Tessa shook her head. "That's not possible," she looked over at Clary and then back at Jon. "We watched him and mom die with our own eyes."

"You think I'd lie about something like this?" Jon demanded. He sounded genuinely hurt. "What possible good would I have from lying? Think about it!"

"Let's just drop it for now," Tessa replied hastily. "We can figure this all out later, as for right now," she smiled at him, "let's just focus on the fortunate part of all this: we're back together."

Apparently they weren't really allowed to bask in their happiness for too long; the door opened without any warning a few minutes after Jon had closed it. The intruders were Will, Jace, and Luke. "Hello," he said politely to Clary. He walked over and held out his hand. She took it with her much smaller one and shook his tentatively. "I'm Lucian Greymark, but you can just call me Luke."

Clary smiled at him weakly and said, "Hello, I'm Clary."

He looked over at Tessa, as if to tell her that she was also a part of what he was about to say. "It's nice to meet both of you; it's been so long since we've had any newcomers that your arrival has shocked the town."

"Sorry if it was any inconvenience," Clary said hurriedly.

Will stepped in immediately and casted her a reassuring smile. "It wasn't any trouble at all. We needed something like this to happen. It reminds the people here that we aren't the only ones left, even though it feels like quite the opposite most of the time." He held his hand out to, "William Herondale, better looking cousin of Jace Herondale, at your service, ma'am."

Clary smiled at this and shook his hand. "Hello," she said. Tessa saw Will cast her a flirtatious wink, and then saw the tops of Clary's cheeks redden slightly.

Tessa saw Jace scowl slightly and then saw him not so gently shove his cousin out of the way. "Yeah, right, William, everyone knows that _I'm_ the better looking one. Just ask Tessa, after looking at your ugly mug all day, I'm sure that seeing my face is like breath of fresh air."

"More like a breath in a garbage dump," Jon butted in. "You're both equally hideous and you're probably going to give both of them nightmares."

Tessa eyed both Will and Jace appreciatively as subtly as she could. She wouldn't admit it aloud, but to herself she thought that if she was going to have a nightmare about either boy, it would be one that she would look forward to.

"Besides," Jon continued before either boy could interrupt, "I'm the best looking one in the entire town!"

That caused all three boys to start laughing loudly; even Luke cracked a smile at their antics. Tessa looked over at Clary, who was looking back at her with wide eyes. It was as if Tessa could read her thoughts: _Are all boys like this now?_ Tessa just silently shrugged, unsure of how to reply.

Luke looked over at Tessa, and for a moment she saw something flashing in his eyes. Before she could look at it closer and figure out what he was feeling, it was gone. "I talked to Ragnor before I came in," he said, looking around at the others. "He said that you were free to come off bed-rest tomorrow. I don't know if you two plan on staying—"

"We aren't sure what we're doing yet," Tessa said quickly.

"Well," Luke said, "choose what you want, there's no rush. Tomorrow, we can give Clary a tour and then introduce you all to the different jobs around here. You can see if you really enjoy one. It might help sway you one way or another."

Tessa and Clary both nodded, smiling widely. "Come on," Luke said, looking at everyone. "Let Clary rest; she needs to build her strength up if she's going to be walking around with us tomorrow."

Even one nodded silently and trooped outside. Tessa and Jon both trailed out last. She turned to look at Clary with a smile as she said, "The sooner you rest, the sooner tomorrow comes."

"Yeah," Jon added. "You get to hang out with your cooler older sibling then."

Tessa snorted and rolled her eyes; he certainly hadn't gotten rid of his bantering personality in the three years that they'd been separated. "Come on, you big oaf," she said pushing on his chest so that he was backing up and out of her room. "Let Clary rest."

"Still got that mothering attitude, I see," he said. She heard the obvious amusement in his voice and had to suppress a smile.

"Yes I do, little brother," she replied smartly. "You'd do well to remember that."

Jon smirked as he shut Clary's door. "Come on, big sister," he said, slinging an affectionate arm over her shoulders. "I know where I can snag some tea and coffee from; I think it's a good idea for us to get caught up."

Tessa wrapped an arm around his waist in return and together, they strode through the hallway and down the stairs. Will, Jace, and Luke were nowhere to be found, but she didn't really pay any heed to that, much too caught up in her new-found elation.

* * *

**_~Will~_**

He and Jace were both walking down the road away from the Institute in a companionable silence. As they parted ways from Jon and Tessa, who were apparently going to the Mess Hall to see if they could talk Bridget out of a cup of tea and a cup of coffee.

"What do you think of this?" Jace asked, sounding genuinely curious.

"I didn't know that my opinion meant so much to you," Will said sarcastically.

"It doesn't really," Jace said with a shrug. "I'm just asking you because I know that you think more like me than anyone else that I know."

"You mean that everyone around us thinks that we're overly arrogant?" Will translated.

"It isn't as though it's an unfounded arrogance," Jace replied with a shrug. "That's beside the point; I really want to know what you think."

"I don't know what to think," Will admitted after a moment of contemplation. "It's obvious that the girls were surprised to see Jonathan, and it's pretty obvious that Jon thought that they were dead. It didn't really look like they were acting."

"Good," Jace said in reply. "I was thinking the same thing."

"Do you think Luke is too?" Will questioned.

"No one ever knows what Luke's thinking," Jace pointed out.

"Jem might be able to find out," Will suggested. "He's very good a reading people."

"He's very good at reading_ you,_" Jace corrected him. "You're easy, though. He can try however; I find Jem to be very diplomatic."

"That's because you don't know the meaning of diplomacy," Will informed him only half jokingly. "You'd start a fight with the entire colony if you thought that you could win."

"No," Jace replied. "I'd only start a fight with the half that I didn't like, and dangle them outside for the stragglers to chase after. There's a difference. We've had this conversation before, William." The sad thing was that Will did remember talking to Jace about that very subject sometime in the past. He snorted at the vivid mental image that entered his mind of half the jerks around the town running and screaming for their lives.

"Come on," Will said, nudging him in the shoulder with his own. "Charlotte is in the office for patrolling shifts. I know you're as bored as I am. We can go and volunteer to take someone else's slot."

* * *

**Hello, people! I would love to point out that I tried to upload this Saturday morning, but the server was down. Please do not shoot me! I hope that you liked the story so far, and I promise that the action is going to start picking up soon now that the foundation of the story has been laid. I hope that you all found this chapter interesting, and that the sibling reunion was a sweet one.**

**Does anyone have any idea who the bad guy out of this story is, or do you have any idea of why Jon, Clary, and Tessa are all in the same town together after three years? Leave your guess in the review box below and make my day with your inquiries.**

**Oh, and the normal dialogue box for uploading didn't come up after FF decided to cooperate, so I had to copy and paste this. I don't know if it affected the formatting or not, but just know that I didn't do it!**


	5. Never Follow a Cute Herondale

_**~Clary~**_

It felt as though she hadn't been asleep for an hour before someone was shaking her awake. Jace was standing over her, grinning slightly as he said, "I've already got the okay from Ragnor. We can go any time you want."

"What time is it?" she mumbled drowsily, wanting nothing more than to turn around and burrow her head into her pillow a bit further. It was clearly too early for any of this.

"I don't really know," Jace mused. It was obvious that he didn't care. "Are you still tired? Because I can come back later, but I figured that you would want to look around before everyone is walking around. You haven't been around people in so long that I figured crowds might make you nervous."

Clary didn't say anything, unsure of what would come out of her mouth. That had to be the most thoughtful thing that she'd heard come out of Jace's mouth. Then again, she'd pegged Jace a pretty face and a thoughtless guy, nothing more. She didn't like to be wrong, but this one time, she had to admit that she was glad.

"That's very nice of you," she finally said. "I didn't know you'd put this much thought into just showing me around."

"That's where, you're wrong, Clary," Jace said with a sigh. He shook his head dramatically, his blond hair swishing slightly behind him. "It's not just _showing you around_, I'm trying to sell this place to you so you won't leave."

"That was…really sweet," Clary said slowly. She looked at him as she felt her face flush slightly. "Thank you."

"It's no problem," Jace replied with a shrug. "If we go right now, we can probably get finished before everyone wakes up."

Clary nodded silently and pushed herself off the bed. "Okay," she said, taking a step toward the door. "Let's go then."

* * *

The town was amazing. It was huge and lined with a colossal wall all the way around. There were no moans of the undead, despite there being so many people in one spot, which should have been a ringing dinner bell. There were actual shops opened up, though Jace said there was no currency used. It was more of a bartering system, and that more often than not, she could probably get whatever she wanted from there by trading off a shift of patrolling the fence, whatever that meant.

She was fascinated by the very idea of the admittedly worn buildings being used by so many people. "There're almost a hundred of them," she whispered to herself as she and Jace moved past the mess hall, and she saw a couple of middle aged people walk past wooden doors. She glanced over at Jace and saw that he was looking at her with a raised eyebrow. She flushed and looked down. "For the longest time, Tessa and I thought that we were the only people left." She amended herself after a moment, "Well, we thought we were the only _good_ people left."

Jace's expression changed to a smile and he nodded. "I can imagine so," he replied. "You…" he trailed off, as if he was calculating what he was saying. "You seem to have had an issue with strangers before."

"Yeah," Clary muttered after a moment, an image of her parents lying dead and mangled flashing through her head. "We did."

When Jace realized that Clary wasn't going to elaborate any further, he stuck his hands into his pockets and looked down the street. "Well," he said after a few seconds of admittedly awkward silence. "Here comes a strange group of three, indeed."

Clary followed his gaze and saw the ink hair of Will, the almost white hair of her brother, and the long, light brown locks of her sister. She smiled at them as they walked over. As soon as they were in hearing range, Jon spoke up. "Hello, little sister. Are you having fun on your grand tour?"

Clary nodded earnestly. She didn't realize how true the statement really was until she thought about it. She hadn't had _fun_ in so long that she didn't realize that it was what she was having when she was walking around and talking to Jace. His narcissism was a bit unsettling, but it was also amusing and something new. "It's amazing!" she exclaimed. "I can't believe that this is all really here!"

Jon's grin widened, as the trio stepped forward to merge with her and Jace, forming a group of five. He patted her on the back and replied, "I'm glad that Jace and Will found you guys." His expression turned a bit more serious after a moment and Clary saw that the others had the same look.

"I have a feeling that I missed something while I was cooped up in that room," Clary guessed. "I'm not sure what it was, but it'd be nice if someone would spill."

"It's not important right now," Tessa replied, cutting Jon off before he could get whatever he was going to say out of his mouth. "I figured that we could all get something to eat before we started whatever else they have planned for us today."

"Great idea, Tess," Will replied, casually throwing an arm around her shoulder. Clary looked at her sister with a raised eyebrow. Tessa blushed and stepped outside of his grasp, causing Will's arm to swing back to his side.

The guys all but ran into the mess hall, leaving Clary and Tessa to walk inside behind them. "He's like a child," Tessa told Clary lowly. "No matter how much I try and push him away and make a boundary, he just bounds over it like it's not there."

"I think it's cute," Clary replied with a smile. She looked over at her sister who was looking at her with a gaping mouth and rolled her eyes. "Come on _Tess_, it could be a lot worse."

Tessa flushed and muttered something about her shutting up as she sped up her pace, trying to put some distance between her and Clary. Clary smiled, it was a nice change to see her sister all flustered, and Will didn't seem like that bad of a guy…at least she hoped he wasn't that bad of a guy.

* * *

_**Jace:**_

He was finally getting at what he'd been waiting for with the girls: to show them the wall. He, Will, and Jon all walked toward the wrought iron fencing that surrounded the interior of the camp and smiled winningly at Charlotte, who was looking down at her clipboard to see if they were scheduled to work.

"I don't see a Herondale until tomorrow," Charlotte said, pushing a piece of brown hair behind her ear as she looked up at them. She was a short woman with a pinched face and brown eyes. She was truly a nice and sweet lady, though most people only saw her rough exterior. "Though Fray is on tonight."

"We're not here for shifts, Charlotte," Jace said quickly.

"We're here to show these fine ladies around," Will brought Clary and Tessa forward, with an arm slung over either of their shoulders. He smiled at Charlotte, who was looking at him with an expression that almost struck Jace as affection.

"Who would they be, Will?" Charlotte questioned, lowering her board to her side. She casted both girls a small smile before looking back at the older Herondale cousin.

"They are our newest guests," Will said, "Clarissa," he nodded toward Clary, "and Theresa Fray."

"You can't mean the same Fray as Jonathan," Charlotte exclaimed, looking at Jon and then toward Tessa and Clary.

"Of course," Jon said. He walked forward and shoved Will out of the way and took his place, wrapping and arm around their shoulders.

"I thought that your sisters were dead," Charlotte protested.

"Yeah," Clary said, her small and polite smiled widened slightly. "Tessa and I thought Jon was dead too."

"Well," Charlotte said, "I'm glad that you were wrong. It's nice to meet you both and don't believe half the things that these boys tell you about their…" she trailed off, for a moment before smiling and saying, "_epic wins in battle_. I promise that most of the stories sound a lot neater than they actually are."

Jace clasped a hand over his heart, "How you wound me, Charlotte. I thought you knew how awesome I was."

She looked at Jace for a moment before looking at the girls as if to say, 'See what I mean!?'

"Come on, guys," Jon said, leading Clary and Tessa past Charlotte. "It's time for you to see what I've been doing for the past three months."

"Not so fast, Jon!" Charlotte called before they got too far. "I almost forgot. Luke wanted to meet with you and Alec. He came around her about fifteen minutes ago and told me to tell you if I saw you."

Jon looked down at his sisters and sighed lowly as he released his grip on their shoulders. "It could be important," he muttered. "I should go and figure out what's wrong." He smiled at his sisters and said, "Don't wait for me; I could be a while. I'll see you as soon as I'm done."

Both girls nodded and Jon jogged off, quickly disappearing behind a large and rickety building that Luke had deemed the Prison House.

"Come on," Will said. "I'll open the door for us."

They followed the cracked pavement to a large gate. There were two people standing outside of the door, which was secured shut by a large iron bar. "Tessa saw this coming in," Jace told Clary, who was walking in between him and Tessa. "You, on the other hand, were a bit preoccupied."

"A bit of an understatement," Clary muttered to him, her voice sounding distant. It was clear from the expression of wonder on her face that her mind was far, far away from where they were. He couldn't hide the smile that fought its way onto his lips from the look. She tore her eyes off the fence after a moment and looked over at him, a smile curling on her own mouth as well. "This feels like a dream. Am I still knocked out?"

"I know that I look amazing," Jace said with a laugh, "but this isn't a dream." He slung an arm around her shoulders as casually as he could and leaned down slightly to whisper in her ear. "I imagine you'll have me visiting your dreams a lot more often now, though."

"You all never cease to amaze me with your shameless narcissism," Clary informed him with a small laugh. He smiled back as well, though part of his grin might have come from the fact that she didn't jerk away from him like she thought she would.

"Shall we split up, Jonathan?" Will asked, looking over at Jace with a raised eyebrow.

Jace rolled his eyes and had to fight back a grin at the utter confusion that was plain in both girls' faces. "Yes, William, I think we should." He turned and held his hand out to Clary. She turned and looked at her sister, who was frowning slightly at Jace. Hesitantly, she placed her hand in his palm and he lightly closed his fingers around hers and brought her hand up as he placed a small kiss on the top. "This way, m'lady," he told her with a grin, "the rest of your grand tour awaits you."

Blood rushed into her cheeks and she captured her bottom lip between her teeth and began to gnaw on it slightly. "O-okay," she said and without another word, he turned and walked out the opened gate, nodding at Thomas, a large African American man with a friendly smile as he went. Clary stumbled confusedly behind him,

He lost sight of Will and Tessa after a moment, the wrought iron fence giving away to a variety of different materials that they'd used to make the walls more secure. "What are we doing?" Clary questioned him after a few moments. She sounded reasonably nervous, though he was unsure if it was because she was out here with him alone, or if it was because she was without Tessa.

"We're about to go through a round of guard duty," Jace announced. He unzipped his leather jacket and stuck his hand inside and clasped it around the sheathed blade that was sitting in the inside pocket.

"Here you are, ma'am," he said handing it to her. "I trust that you can take care of yourself, though I do request that you don't try to attack me. I quite like the way I look."

He heard her mutter something under her breath that sounded a lot like, _I can tell_. He smirked and said. "Don't let your guard down too easily," he advised her. "The zombies can be quiet little bastards when they want to be, and—"

"They always travel in packs," Clary finished for him with a small roll of her eyes. He liked that she was able to cut him off and finish his lecture correctly; she wasn't stupid. He smiled at the thought, it was a nice thought.

"Glad that you know that," Jace said turning to look at her with a smirk. "Allow me to show you that I'm a bit more skilled than what you saw in the store, and I'll let you show me that your spectacular save wasn't just luck."

Clary smiled at that and nodded. "Alright, Herondale," she said. "You're so on."

* * *

_**Tessa:**_

"You think that Clary's going to be okay without me?" she questioned, looking up at Will with a furrowed brow. She inwardly cringed at the sound of the question, but didn't take it back all the same.

"Jace takes pride in his brain and his ability to handle himself and others," Will replied with a shrug. "She's in the most capable hands in the town…other than your own, of course."

Tessa didn't want to admit, even to herself, how much that reassurance had calmed her. She'd only known Will a couple of days, but his calm and confident attitude made her more relaxed; it made her feel like she didn't have to shoulder so much responsibility. It should have been her natural instinct to distrust that stupid feeling, but she couldn't bring herself to.

Will must have realized that Tessa wasn't going to reply, because he continued to speak, offering her his arm. She took it after only a moment's hesitation and tried to ignore the smile that was starting to stretch on his face. "I'm not the best person for that whole _taking care of people_ thing. I don't have Jace's uncharacteristic bedside manner."

"Are you just overly flirtatious?" Tessa questioned with twitching lips.

"_Me_, flirtatious?" Will asked. "I didn't know anyone thought that I was anything like that."

"Can't imagine why," Tessa replied, her lips twitching as they made it past the gate and the walls turned opaque.

"Shut up, Fray," Will shot back. "I don't know how I didn't see your resemblance to Jonathan before; you're both stubborn as hell."

Tessa looked over at Will and saw that he was fighting off a grin. "I'm going to take that as a compliment," she decided after a moment of silence. "Thank you, William."

* * *

They were outside of the fence for maybe thirty minutes before they met Jace and Clary on the other side. Will was pointing out the different guard posts, where there were people with bows and arrows, waiting to take down any different forms of trouble that may occur. Apparently that has included domestic troubles in the past. They were walking toward them with grins on their faces as Jace muttered something to Clary that Tessa was too far away to hear. She heard her sister's laugh though; it was almost a shy one, which was uncharacteristic of the redhead.

Tessa gave them both a strange look as they stopped maybe a yard from each other. She glanced over to see that Will was giving them almost the same expression. "Didn't know you were a comedian, little cousin," Will quipped. "She must have been laughing because she feels bad for how lacking you are in the wit department."

"If you were half as funny as you think you are," Jace replied, "you'd be twice as funny as you are now."

Tessa looked over at Will and saw that he was trying to think of something to say in return. Just what Jace said was enough to make her try to fight back the giggles that were dangerously close to escaping; the look on Will's face was what pushed her over the edge. A loud snort escaped from her, and she didn't even have it in her to be mortified by the sound. Clary was laughing too, looking at Will and pointing at the dumbfounded expression on his face.

"Something wrong, Herondale?" her sister teased, "Cat got your tongue?"

The corners of Will's lips slowly curved upward. "That was funny," he relented. "Your first one in a while." He looked at Tessa and said, "Any smooth and wise comments that come out of his mouth…believe that I've taught him everything he knows." He sighed dramatically and placed his hand on his forehead, "Sadly, I can only teach the daft boy so much!"

Tessa smiled at him faintly and shook her head. "You're both insane," she said decidedly.

"It's what makes us irresistible," Will quipped. "Come on though," he gestured to past Jace and Clary. "We need to finish the round!"

It was maybe half an hour later that they finished walking through the fence. It was a relatively uneventful time. Will told a few jokes here and there, and every now and again, they would pass a guard, who Will would greet by name with a nod before moving along.

When they made it to the gate, Jonathan was standing beside Charlotte, speaking to her with his hands clasped behind his back. He looked calm, and as though whatever he was talking about was light and small talk. Jace and Clary weren't back yet, but Tessa wasn't too concerned because Will didn't seem fazed by it.

Jon looked up as they walked toward him, a grin on his face. "Hey," he greeted. Tessa didn't miss the way that his smile seemed a little too happy. "Look, um, when Jace and Clary get back, I need to tell you something."

"What are you talking about?" Tessa questioned. Her eyebrows drew together into a frown as she crossed her arms. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Jonathan said quickly. He held his hands up in a placating gesture as he said. "Nothing's wrong, Tess. Luke told me that he wanted me to sit down with the two of you and talk about…" Jon sighed and shook his head. "Well," he shrugged. "They're quite a few things that we need to talk about."

* * *

**Yes, I know that I have left off Will's POV. I'm going to make his extra long next chapter to make up for that. Promise. Sorry for the shorter chapter compared to the length of time that it took for me to update. I don't think that it'll take that long for me to come out with the next chapter *fingers crossed* Things are going to start picking up very soon! *Yay!* I know you're all really excited about this prospect! **

**Love you all that read, leave a review in the box below and let me know what you think!**


	6. Never Split From Your Group

_**Chapter Six: Never Split From Your Group**_

* * *

_**~Will~**_

He and Jace left Jonathan, Tessa, and Clary alone at the institute to talk, and were currently sitting in the living room of Jace's house. They'd only been inside for around ten minutes when the door opened, admitting a motley crew of four people: Alec, Magnus, Isabelle, and Simon. The first person in, the elder Lightwood sibling, was frowning, his blue eyes glowing as though something was troubling him greatly. Will almost asked what was wrong, but he had a feeling that it probably wasn't something that he wanted to involve himself in. Jace must have had the same sense, because he kept silent as well, choosing to feign sleep by laying his head back against the ratty leather couch and closing his eyes.

"So the great Herondales finally decided to grace us with their presence," Isabelle said, crossing her arms over her chest as she looked at the boys with her lips set into a firm straight line. So it was going to be one of _those_ days.

He scowled over at Isabelle, and Jace's head shot up as he glared over at her too. "Don't imply anything, Iz," Jace snapped at her. "If you've got something to say, go on and say it outright!"

"Why so defensive, Jace?"Isabelle demanded.

Will was admittedly confused, and, judging from the looks on their faces, the others were as well. "Why are you guys fighting?" Alec demanded. His voice was as weary as his eyes.

"I don't know!" Jace snapped, glaring over at Isabelle and then shooting Alec a small frown before going back to Isabelle and glaring all over again. "Why don't you ask your sister?"

"I asked you, Jace," Alec informed him; sounding the most annoyed that he'd heard him in a while. "Either you two can stop acting like three year olds or the ones with enough maturity to actually handle themselves can go somewhere else and talk!"

"I act like I'm four and a half," Jace said smartly. When Alec's glare didn't soften, Will's cousin just sighed and he relaxed back into the couch again. "Fine, Lightwood. You and Lewis need to keep your sister on a leash, or I'm going to find her a muzzle."

"I dare you to try," Isabelle shot back. "Guilty conscience making you temperamental?"

"No," he replied, "but your mouth is."

"Okay!" Will snapped, finally fed up with the pointless bantering. "Shut the hell up or tell us what's wrong! I'll find a muzzle for both of you if you don't!"

Jace and Izzy both shot him dirty looks and he knew it was because they knew he would actually do it. He looked away from them both and looked over at Alec, who'd taken a seat beside him on the loveseat. "What's wrong with you?" Will questioned. He figured that it would be better to get all their problems out on the table immediately, so that they could all be resolved soon and he would have less of a headache.

Alec looked at him with a raised eyebrow and Will simply glared at him, crossing his arms over his chest. "I'm not in the mood right now, Lightwood. Tell me what's wrong, so we can get this group therapy session over with!"

Alec's eyes widened slightly, and Will could tell that he was startled by his uncharacteristic display of aggression.

"Nothing, really," Alec sighed. "A couple of the patrolling scouts saw a hoard of zombies ten miles or so out. Luke doesn't want them getting to the colony, but he figures with so many people here, it's impossible to not attract them."

"What does that have to do with you?" Magnus' voice cut Will off sharply before he could even begin to ask that exact question. Will had a feeling that he knew what it had to do with Alec, and Magnus wasn't going to like it if he was right.

"Luke wants me and Jon to go and scout out the horde and see if there's a way to redirect their path," Alec replied gravely. He shrugged after a moment and said, "Not really a big—"

"Do not say that isn't a big deal!" Magnus and Isabelle both cut him off at the same time. Alec flushed and looked back and forth between them, as though he was unsure of whom he should be more fearful.

Isabelle continued before Magnus could, drawing her brother's attention. "I don't see how you don't find that to be a big deal, but it really is! When were you planning on mentioning this, huh? Right before you went out?"

"No," Magnus spat. "He wouldn't have mentioned it at all. Jonathan would have."

"Calm down—"

"Don't tell me to calm down, Alec!" Isabelle exclaimed.

Will winced at the noise and saw Simon do the same. "Not the best idea, my friend," Simon muttered to Alec, who shot the spectacled boy a glare.

"You're going to be used as bait!" Magnus snapped at him. He crossed his arms and looked down at Alec, his lips turned downward in a pouty frown. "How can you care so little about yourself, Alexander?"

Alec stood up and glared at Isabelle and Magnus, his hands balled into fists. "I'm going out there to make sure that the people that I care about are safe!" he snapped at them. Will raised his eyebrows, not used to seeing such a strong reaction out of him. "I wasn't going to mention it, because I knew you'd try and talk me out of it. Well, guess what: it's not going to work!"

Without another word, Alec marched out of the living room, toward the front door; a moment later there was a loud slam.

"I think he's pretty adamant," Will said after a moment of silence. Everyone looked over at him before Jace sighed and stood up.

"Since I am the only person that didn't egg him on," he looked at Will pointedly, "or piss him off," he looked at the rest of them, "I guess I'm going to have to go and talk to him."

Without another word, Jace walked out of the living room, and the sound of a door slamming echoed into his ears for the second time in under two minutes.

* * *

_**~Jace~**_

Alec was walking away from his house, practically stomping down the street. People moved out of his way, as though they could sense his mood and didn't want to get in his way...smart people.

"Alec," Jace called. His friend didn't answer him; he just kept walking. "Dammit, Alec!" he snapped angrily as he started running after him, "Quit being such a baby!"

That made his friend pause, just like Jace knew it would. He spun around and glared at Jace in the center of the street. "I don't want to talk about it, Herondale," Alec snapped. "You're not going to talk me out of it, so just shut up and leave me alone."

"Even if I was here to talk you out of it," Jace said, "telling me that wouldn't have worked." He walked up to Alec slowly and put his hand on his shoulder. "I just didn't want you to storm away all dramatically thinking that everyone was against your decision."

"You're not?" Alec asked disbelievingly.

Jace shook his head, "No, why would I be? I understand wanting to help the ones you love, even when they're acting like a bunch of pricks." His mind immediately shot to Isabelle, yelling and fussing at him as soon as she saw him.

A relieved smile came to Alec's face as he nodded, "Finally!" he exclaimed, "I'm so sick of everyone looking at me like I'm incapable."

"They don't look at you like you're incapable," Jace reassured him, "they look at you like they're worried about you. I know that it's annoying, but it's better than everyone not caring whether you live or die."

"I'm not sure about that," Alec confided as they began moving out of the center of the street. "It looks like I'm going to have Magnus and Isabelle on my ass. What's up with Magnus, anyway?"

That caused Jace to pause. He turned and looked at Alec. They were on the sidewalk by this time, well out of the way of traffic and curious ears. "Do I need to smack some sense into you?" Jace demanded. "Because I swear I will."

Alec had the audacity to look genuinely hurry by his question. "Why would you do that?"

"For the love of God, Alec, Bane likes you!" he exclaimed, grabbing his friends shoulders and shaking them roughly. Alec swatted him off and looked away, but not before Jace could see the patches of pink on his cheeks. "You like him too, don't you?"

Alec opened his mouth, but only a strangled sound came out, strongly resembling a dying cat.

Jace grinned widely at Alec and said, "Great choice! He's very... glittery."

"Don't tell him," Alec pleaded, suddenly looking desperate. "I wasn't too find a way to tell him on my own and I don't want to complicate anything until I get back."

"I won't say a word," Jace swore, grinning, at the thought of a happy Alec and at the thought of Isabelle finally getting off his back.

"Thanks, man," Alec said, sound very relieved.

"Well look," Jace said, "we might as well go ahead and listen to you sister and Magnus yell and scold you. Just remember that you're doing this for a reason and they won't be able to change your mind."

Alec looked unsure, but nodded in agreement all the same. "How upset do you think they are at me?"

"Who cares?" Jace demanded.

"I do," Alec groaned. "I hate it when people are angry at me. It makes me feel guilty."

"Well don't," Jace said. "How does it make sense that you should feel guilty for trying to keep them safe?"

Alec's blue eyes narrowed as he shook his head, "It doesn't, you're right, Jace! They should be thanking me, not scolding me! How are you able to look at things in black and white like that?"

"Because there really isn't another way of looking at it," he shrugged. "The people that are trying to tell you that there's another way are a bunch of liars that are trying to work at some angle to get something out of you."

Alec smiled at Jace and said, "I'm glad that you're my best friend, man. I don't know what I'd do without you sometimes."

"You would have died years ago," Jace told him seriously. "Now come on, your nagging sister is awaiting us!"

* * *

_**~Clary~**_

Nothing compared to the tightness in her chest as Jonathan spoke. He was leaving them, already. And not for anything simple either, he was going to pull of some insane zombie-car-chase. She looked at him with a gaping mouth as she sat on her bed. "Please," she whispered. "Please tell me that I'm just having some kind of bad dream and that you're not actually serious about becoming _bait_ when we just got you back!"

"Clare," Jon said quietly, reaching out and grabbing her hand. It was an affectionate gesture that she hadn't been prepared for. Jon didn't do affectionate. "Please, listen to me. I don't want to go, but I'd rather go and get the zombies off the trail to the town than stay here safe for a couple of days until we're consumed."

"I get that," she said earnestly. "What I don't get is why it has to be you! Why can't someone else do it?"

"Why not me?" Jon challenged. He shook his head, "I'm just as capable as anyone else here and their lives aren't worth any more or less than mine."

Clary looked at him with an open mouth, knowing that she had no argument for that. Tessa was sitting next to her. She hadn't said a word since Jon had told them the bad news and Clary had a feeling that it was because she was slowly starting to build her walls up. Clary didn't want to see her sister as a sheltered mess again, and if they lost Jon, there was no way that she would ever open up to anything ever again.

"It's actually quite safe," Jon tried with a small shrug.

"How?" Tessa snapped angrily. "How the hell is that safe for anyone? You're going to be trapped inside of a _car_ while you try and distract flesh eating corpses!"

"How many zombies do you know that can outrun a car?" he demanded. "They can't even outrun a human. The car that I'll be in is armored and safe. Nothing's going to get in it. It'll be like a joyride through another couple of towns and I'll be back in a couple of days."

Clary hated to say it, but what he said made sense. She looked at him suspiciously before slowly nodding her head. "I guess I believe you," she finally sighed.

Tessa looked over at Clary in obvious horror. "How can you say that?" she exclaimed. "Clary, he's going out and risking his life like a madman! The least you could do is not support his insanity!"

"There'll be a walkie-talkie in the car with us," Jon said helpfully. "It's not like you guys won't be able to know how we're doing the entire time that we're out there."

"We don't even know this Alec," Tessa said. Clary knew that voice; her sister was starting to give in because she couldn't find any more holes in his plan.

"He's capable and he's a nice guy," Jon swore. "He's cool and I'd put my life in his hands any day."

Tessa looked in between Jon and Clary as she weakly said, "Just tell me that your driving has improved over the past three years."

"Yes, Tessa," Jon said exasperatedly. "I hardly ever crash anymore."

"JONATHAN!" Tessa scolded.

"Just kidding, big sister," Jon said. He put both of his hands in the air in a surrendering manner. "Calm down."

"I will _not_ calm down if you can't take risking your life seriously!" Tessa said sternly.

Jon looked over at Clary, silently pleading with her to help him. Part of her didn't want to, because seeing Tessa mother henning someone that wasn't her was a nice change. She helped anyway.

"Calm down, Tess," Clary said soothingly as she wrapped an arm around Tessa's shoulders and pulled her close. "Take deep breaths and release them slowly. Come on," she looked at Tessa who looked like she was slowly pulling herself together, "In…out…in…out." Tessa obeyed, breathing deeply and slowly. After a few moments, she felt calm enough to release.

"Do you really have to do this, Jon?" Tessa asked meekly. "Can't someone go in your place? I would!" Clary knew that the only thing that was driving her fight was something that she couldn't beat out of her. She was the oldest; she felt a certain amount of responsibility for all of them, no matter how long it had been since she'd seen Jon.

"You're not going in my place," Jon said firmly. "The people here don't know you yet and they wouldn't allow it because they don't know if they can trust you. I'm sorry, Tessa, but you can't stop this. It would be better if you went ahead and accepted that I'm going and that you'll see me soon. Two days, max."

"When do you leave?" Clary asked, hoping to force Tessa into conceding by pushing on with the conversation.

"Tonight," Jon said. "I would have told you sooner, but I just heard about it myself. We'll go right after dark and if all goes well, we'll be back tomorrow night."

"And if things don't go well," Tessa demanded. "Do you have a plan for that?"

"We do, actually," Jon replied. "If things don't go well, you'll see me the morning after the next," Jon said. "That's why I said two days max. There's another route that we can take if we get overrun or if the diversion either works too well or not at all."

"What if the diversion doesn't work?" Clary asked.

"Don't think about that," Jon said firmly. "Things like this happen regularly. It's not a freak event."

"What if the diversion doesn't work," Tessa repeated Clary's words. Her voice was surprisingly hard and it unnerved Clary to hear her sister so openly upset.

"If the diversion doesn't work," Jonathan sighed and rubbed his hands over his face, "If it doesn't work then you'll be glad that you haven't settled down for too long because you'll need the nomadic experience."

He didn't have to say any more than that. If he failed then the entire town would fall to pieces. Clary felt fear clasp at her heart. She didn't know these people, but this place was her first chance at a home in three years. She didn't want to see it wrecked before she had a chance to really enjoy it.

* * *

_**~Tessa~**_

It was the first night that she'd been there that she heard the sounds of creatures moaning from beyond the gate. The thought sent chills down her spin as though someone had dropped a cup of ice down her shirt. She didn't want to think about those flesh eating monsters when Jonathan was about to venture outside. She saw the vehicle that they would be driving in. It looked like an overly bulky Hummer. Seeing how well protected he would be did a lot to alleviate her fears.

Jon was smiling winningly at them as he walked over. There was a tall guy with black hair and blue eyes following him. "I want you guys to meet Alec Lightwood. He's the guy that I'll be driving with."

He looked at them with a shy smile, as though he didn't like being the center of attention. Tessa could relate. "Hello, Alec," she said politely. "I expect that you'll take care of our idiot of a brother. We already lost him once."

Alec nodded quickly, his eyes wide. "Of course," he said. "He's in safe hands with me. I'll make sure that he gets back here in one piece."

"You guys are a lot less threatening than Isabelle and Magnus," Jon informed Tessa and Clary dryly. "_Both_ of them threatened the removal of some of my favorite body parts if he was harmed. The least you could do is scare him as much."

"Why would we do that?" Clary asked dryly. "I don't know Alec, but I do know you. Scaring you is fun, but you are a handful to keep out of trouble and if we scare him, he might be too frightened to function properly."

Alec smiled at this and looked over at Clary. "You're the girl that saved Jace's life?"

Clary nodded slowly, "Yeah, I don't know what he's said, but it's no big deal, really. I'm sure that if it came down to it, anyone would have done the same."

"No," Alec said. "They wouldn't have. Jace is practically my brother, and I'm here to thank you for saving his life. I promise that I'll return the favor with yours."

Tessa felt herself smiling the same smile that was on Clary's face. "Thank you," she said earnestly, conveying Tessa's feelings of appreciation as well. "I'll sleep easier knowing that he has someone like you with him."

Alec stretched out his hand and said, "It's been nice meeting you."

Clary shook it and then Tessa stepped forward and shook it as well. "Thank you, Alec. It's been very nice meeting you."

"Come on," Jon told Alec, "We've got to go." He took a step forward and pulled Clary and Tessa to his massive form easily. "I'll be back soon."

He backed up, casted them a wink and turned around. He and Alec sprinted to the vehicle and Jon slid into the driver's seat. He leaned out the window and waved widely before he turned the car on and rolled it up.

"There's no need to worry too much," Will's voice came out of nowhere. She yelped and spun around. He was standing behind them with a grim smile on his face.

"How do you know how much I need to worry?" Tessa demanded.

"Because I've seen my cousin drive off and I've driven off in that same vehicle myself," he replied with a shrug. "We both came back unscathed."

Tessa nodded, feeling ashamed for her outburst. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have—"

"Wanted to know why someone was telling you not to worry about your brother?" Will questioned with a roll of his eyes. "Yes, you should have, Tess. Turn around and wave Jon off; it'll make him feel a lot better, trust me."

Tessa obeyed, smiling at her brother as she jumped up and down waving him off. The gates opened and the armored vehicle sped through, out of sight almost immediately. The doors closed back and the people that had come to see the two boys off backed off and started walking away. Clary was no longer by her side and when she turned to look, she saw that her redheaded sister was talking to a guy with olive toned skin and rectangular rimmed glasses. She was smiling at something that he said and then laughed lightly.

Will must have noticed what she was looking at, because he said, "Simon Lewis: residential nerd…and genius, but Jace likes to leave that part off."

"Jace doesn't like him?" Tessa questioned, turning back around to look at Will. If Jace didn't like him, she didn't know how she felt about him being around Clary.

"No," Will said. "They're friends; he's just a bit dumb about some things and it pisses Jace off. He's a good guy though," Will said, as though reading into her fears, "he'd make a great friend for your sister. He's loyal to a fault."

Tessa nodded; that was exactly what Clary needed. "And what about your cousin?"

"He's a good guy too," Will said earnestly. "He may talk a lot of trash and act arrogant, but he has a large heart. He just doesn't show it to a lot of people."

"Is that how you are?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. She felt mortified by her own forwardness. Will's eyes widened, as though he was surprised by her question himself.

"Nah," he said after a moment. "My heart's a shriveled up piece of ice. It's nothing to waste anyone's time over."

Tessa found that hard to believe. "You're saying that we shouldn't be friends?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying, but just because we shouldn't be friends doesn't mean that we won't be," he smiled and offered her his arm. "Come on, there are a few more people in this town that you should meet. They're great people and I'm sure that you'll get along famously with them."

* * *

The people that he wanted her to meet were Isabelle Lightwood, Alec's sister, and Magnus Bane, who she'd already met. They were polite enough, smiling as they spoke to her. Isabelle even went as far as asking to see her knife. When Tessa showed it to her, Will said something about a letter opener again and Isabelle glared at him. Her dark brown, practically black eyes, looked almost demonic as she waved the blade toward his face.

"I could gut you with this letter opener and I'm willing to bet that Tessa, here, could too," she informed him smugly.

Tessa flushed, not wanting to get in the middle of whatever sort of rivalry this was. Magnus pulled her out of harm's way and said, "Let them fight it out," in her ear. "Believe me, William Herondale fighting is a _very_ exquisite sight, indeed."

Tessa gaped at Magnus' words, not wanting to feel embarrassed by them, but the flush on her face came anyway. Magnus chuckled and patted her on the shoulder. "Don't worry, Tessa. He's absolutely gorgeous, something would be wrong with you if you _didn't_ want to look."

Tessa looked away from Will, who was boasting about being able to beat Isabelle with his eyes closed, and over to Magnus, who was smiling cheekily at her. "I…"

"Don't worry," Magnus said, grabbing her shoulder and turning her so that she could see Will and Isabelle again. He'd taken off his jacket and thrown it to the ground. His large arms were on display and Tessa felt mortified for even _looking_ at him. "I won't tell anyone that you were watching."

She was certain that it should be illegal to look that good. And then he beckoned Izzy toward him with his hand, as if saying _give it your best shot._

* * *

**Okay, I know that first off: four months is an unforgivable amount of time to leave anything lying around, not taken care of, but I did and I'm so sorry. If you all hate me, then I understand, but if you don't…then that's great! School is an all consuming force that completely took over my life for the past **_**forever**_** and I'm glad to be done with it. I'm sure that there's a lot of you out there that feel the same way.**

**To be quite honest, I've forgotten a lot about what I intended to happen in this story and I wrote nothing down while planning it. (Note to self: NEVER PLAN A STORY COMPLETELY IN YOUR HEAD!) It's going to take me a while to really sit down and either recompile this story, or figure out where it's going to go. I know where it's heading short-term, but as for long term…I'm lucky if I remember who the actual bad guy is supposed to be.**

**I'm back, though. I'm looking forward to hearing from you guys, and I hope that you're all looking forward to more chapters from me! Love you all and thanks for reading this chapter. I know that this entire thing was a filler (I feel really bad about not being able to give any more after the huge wait), but it's all I've got to give you and it's completely necessary. Next chapter is going to be **_**a lot**_** more interesting and the action will start picking up.**

**Love you all! Happy summer vacation to those already on theirs! WAHOO!**


	7. Never Leave a Safe Haven

_**Chapter Seven: Never Leave a Safe Haven**_

* * *

_**Clary:**_

Simon Lewis was a cool guy. Well, she _thought_ that he was anyway. She hadn't been around a guy in a while, so it was hard to really judge. He liked anime…at least, he did when the earth was still up and running. He had a stash of books that he offered to let her borrow. Apparently, it had been a while since he'd met someone with an interest in the same genre of entertainment as him.

The thought made her smile slightly as she flickered through one of the several volumes that he'd given her. "What are you doing?" Jace's voice reached her ears. From his tone, Clary could tell that he found her just sitting around and reading mortifying. For someone so smart, he refused to be idle long enough to so much as pick a book up.

"Reading," she replied, not even looking up at him. She knew that if she looked up, she would be distracted. She hadn't known Jace for that long, but she already knew that he was just about the most distracting person in the camp.

"I can see that," Jace said. She didn't even have to look up to know that he was rolling his eyes. He had a very expressive tone that was delicious to her ears. She paused in her reading at that thought and then mentally slapped herself. Stupid, distracting boys.

"Do you want to try it?" she asked, flipping another page. "It has pictures in it, so if you can't make out the words, you'll still have an idea of what's going on."

"Ha ha," he said dryly. "I had no idea you could tell jokes."

"What can I say?" she asked, "I'm a pretty talented person."

"You can pretend to stop reading now," Jace said after a few moments of silence. "I can tell that you're actually dying to look at me."

That caught Clary's attention. She frowned as she looked up at him. "And how do _you_ know that I'm dying to look at you?"

"Because your eyes haven't moved from the spot that they'd been sitting on, even when you turned the page," he informed her, a smug smile curling on his lips. "Go ahead and admit it."

"How do you know that I wasn't daydreaming about Will?" she challenged.

Jace blinked at that. She smirked at him; she liked the thought of catching him and all of his arrogance off guard. But then he recovered. "Please," he snorted, "I know you have better taste than _that._"

"What are you talking about?" Clary asked innocently. "Will's a pretty good looking guy. I mean, I know you're too busy looking at your own reflection to notice, but his blue eyes are really beautiful."

Clary was pretty sure that the look on Jace's face was the equivalent of a kid being told that Christmas had been cancelled. "What's wrong, Herondale?" she inquired, closing her book and setting it on the bed beside her as she looked at Jace. She would never admit it, but out of the cousins, she favored Jace the most. Will was a genuinely nice guy that made her laugh more times than not, but he was also hyper and annoying. It was almost as though he would go out of his way to annoy her. The only thing that made her not murder him in his sleep was the fact that she knew that he didn't mean it maliciously. He was just being Will. Well that, and his gorgeous eyes.

Besides, she had always had a thing for blonds, though that might be because she was more used to being around them, thanks to her father and Jon.

"Nothing's wrong," he said. Clary detected something different in his voice. The playfulness that had been in his tone when he'd first walked in was gone. "I was just wondering if you knew where Tessa was."

"Tessa?" Clary inquired. "What do you want Tessa for?"

"To talk," Jace replied with a small shrug. "You know, it's what people do when they don't have their noses shoved in anime books. Who gave those to you? Lewis?"

Clary frowned at the bitterness in his words, and suddenly she felt almost bad for what she'd said about Will. Then she got angry at herself for feeling guilty. She had only known him for a handful of days and had seen him flirt with every girl that walked by. He had absolutely no claim on her, unless one wanted to include the fact that she'd saved him from a zombie that he'd been too busy flirting with her to see. At the moment, she was wondering how Alec ever liked him.

"Yes, Simon gave these to me. I have a life outside of you, you know."

Jace raised his eyebrows at her, as though he was surprised by the bite in her voice. Good. He wanted to be a jerk, so Clary would be a bitch. "Whatever," Jace muttered. "Next time I see Will, I'll let him know that he should wear eyeliner to accentuate his blue eyes, as Izzy says; I'm sure that you'll be able to see them even better that way."

And then he was gone from her sight. God, someone was sensitive. It made her idly wonder if it was his time of the month.

She picked the book back up and was flipping through to find her page when Jace's voice rang in her ears again. She looked up at him with a frown. Hadn't they just finished whatever their conversation had been? Then she caught sight of the look on Jace's face. It wasn't normal. He looked calm, but there was definitely something forced about it. Was he really that angry that she'd mentioned Will having pretty eyes? Then she pushed the thought out of her head. Jace wasn't that stupid.

"What is it?" she asked, putting her book back down.

"Grab your knife," he said, even his voice was a strained kind of calm that Clary imagined was only thinly controlled.

"What—"

"Now!" he snapped angrily at her. Clary jumped up and snatched her knife off her desk. He stalked forward and grabbed her by the lower arm and pulled her into the hall. She felt panic fill her chest. Had she misjudged Jace? Was he really a psycho that's going to hurt her because she'd teased him?

He seemed to feel her apprehension, because he turned and looked at her. He grabbed both of her upper arms and said, "Listen to me, Clary. We're in a bit of trouble."

"What?" she demanded. Her heart was hammering as she looked up at him; fear started eating away at her stomach as she realized that Jace looked scared behind his thin mask of calm.

"The fence," he said. "The fence has been breached. We've got to get out, now."

"Tessa," Clary said. It was the first thought that came to her mind. Her sister was in trouble, and Clary had to make sure that she was safe.

"Tessa's with Will," he said. "He'll keep her safe."

"But you just said that you were looking for her," Clary said. "Don't lie to me!"

"I was lying earlier," he said patiently. "They were in the mess hall with Jem. We need to leave, though, or else we're going to be in trouble."

"What about everyone else in this building?" Clary asked.

"They're already outside," he said. "Can't you hear them screaming?"

And that was when the sounds reached her ears: terrorized screams, high pitched shrieks of fear and death. "Okay," she said, taking deep breaths in and out as she forced herself to remain calm. "We need to find the three of them; I don't care what you say, I need to make sure that Tessa's safe."

Jace muttered something that sounded like a curse and Clary wrenched herself from his grip angrily. "Fine, then. You go and get out. I'll go myself."

"Don't be stupid," Jace snapped at her. He grabbed her wrist and started dragging her down the hallway, as though she was a toddler throwing a temper tantrum. "Let's go already!"

"My legs are shorter than yours!" Clary exclaimed.

"Then run!"

* * *

_**~Tessa~**_

James Carstairs was telling Tessa a very intriguing story about Will's, Jace's and his antics when they were young. Apparently the three of them had known each other for years and Jem had been an adopted member of their family ever since his parents died.

"And now," Jem informed her with a small smirk, "they're both terrified of them."

"Ducks," Tessa said slowly. "They're terrified of _ducks_."

She saw Will shudder slightly, as if the memory of being terrorized by the small birds was giving him the chills. She shook her head as she looked over at the raven haired boy, "You slay zombies for a living, and you're afraid of ducks?"

"The way that you talk about it, makes it out like they're innocent," Will defended. "They're beasts! Never trust a duck! Filthy, vile…" he trailed off as he realized that half of the mess hall was now looking their way. Then he just shrugged, "They already think that I'm crazy, anyway."

"The term that they use is _nutter_," Jem informed Will smugly.

Tessa rolled her eyes at their banter. They were about the most entertaining thing in the town.

"You're just jealous that…" Will trailed off as the doors of the mess hall flew open and a haggard middle aged woman rushed in. Her hair was wild and her eyes were wide. "What the hell?" he asked.

Screams echoed into the room as everyone turned to look at the intruder."Breach!" she called. "There's been a breach in the fence!"

The effect was instantaneous. Chaos consumed everyone as they all jumped up and headed for the front door, shoving past the woman in their haste to get outside. Will and Jem both stood up at the same time and Tessa hastily followed suit. "Come on," Will said, over the sound of maybe twenty people fighting for space to get out. "Let's go out the back. The vehicles are—"

"Clary," Tessa said, looking at Will with wide eyes. "I've got to get Clary!"

"Jace just said that he was going to talk to her," Will said. "He'll get her out, Tess."

"I have to get to her," Tessa said desperately.

Will looked in between Jem and Tess and sighed. "Go and get us a ride out of here," he told Jem. "Meet us in front of the Institute."

Jem nodded and rushed toward the front door, which had already cleared out. The screams were getting louder and Tessa felt even more nervous. Clary was somewhere out there in all of that. "Come on," Tessa said, moving toward the front door.

"You don't want to go that way," Will promised. "It's going to be crazy." He grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the back of the mess hall. The kitchen was empty now, and Tessa saw a large door beside the stove, which was still running. The smell of something burning from the pot on the front eye hit her nose almost immediately and she grimaced. It was an awful smell. Will motioned for her to stay back as he grabbed one of the large utensils off the counter top. He opened the door and Tessa heard the sounds of screaming and moaning a lot more clearly from there. The coast was clear, however, so Will beckoned her out.

She ran out with him and they ran past the back door and around the building behind it. The side road that they ended up on was empty. Will grabbed her hand again as he began running down the street. She kept up with him easily, thanking God for her long legs.

She saw the huge building from where they were. It wasn't too far away, but at the moment, it felt as though it was a hundred miles. "Part of me is glad that we have to go back," he said. "My sword's in Luke's office."

Keeping on the back roads may have meant that they had to take a longer route, but Will assured her that it would have taken a lot longer to get there if they would have taken the main road. When they finally had to turn on to a street with a lot of people, she realized what he was talking about.

Ever thing was pure insanity; groups of the undead were shuffling toward people that were running around, screaming their heads off. Tessa had her knife out, but Will was sure to keep her far enough away from the undead that she had no use for it. The first zombie that they really came close to was at the front of the institute entrance. It was the shell of an older man. He had only one ear, and most of his right arm was gone. Before Tessa could attack it, Will had already swung his kitchen utensil, a rolling pin, and hit the zombie on the side of the head. It went down permanently, its head resting at an awkward angle.

Will opened the doors to the Institute and pulled her inside. She followed without complaint, looking around as she did. The entire place was silent. Everything was empty and practically dead. She shuddered at the though. Even that word was in bad taste.

"Let's get my sword first," Will told her, his voice only coming out as a whisper. "Then we can go up to Clary's room."

Tessa didn't want to wait to go after Clary, but she nodded all the same. She figured that having Will with her made her chances of living long enough to find her sister a lot greater. The thought also made her angry; she didn't need his, or anyone else's, help! Part of her wanted to argue with him, but she didn't. She kept her mouth shut because she knew that if she argued with him, they would be losing time. That wasn't something that she was prepared to risk. She needed to get to Clary as quickly as she could.

"Let's hurry, please," she pleaded. Will nodded in agreement as he turned around. They slowly walked down the hallway and into the living room. It was actually moving them farther away from Clary. The thought made Tessa anxious, but she hid it well. Luke's office was still opened and Tessa saw people shuffling around inside. Zombies.

Will seemed to have the same idea, because he muttered, "Stay back."

"Are you crazy?" she demanded. "I have the only real sharp weapon between us!"

"It's practically a letter opener and we'll be better without—"

"Are you two really arguing about who's going to kill whatever's in Luke's office?" a voice demanded from the place of question.

Tessa knew that masculine sound. "Jace?" she asked.

"The one and only," the blond said as he walked into view, a small grin spreading on his face. "I left my knives here when I finished fence duty this morning."

"Where's Clary?" Tessa demanded concernedly.

"I'm right here," her sister said, as she walked into view and stood beside Jace. She had a familiar weapon in her hand: Will's sword. Will dashed forward at the sight, murmuring about his _beautiful baby_ excitedly as he went. He practically snatched the scabbard out of Clary's hands as he hugged it. He slipped the strap around his shoulder and under his arm so that is was strapped to his back diagonally.

"This is the part where I'm supposed to feel an overwhelming surge of shame for being related to this, right?" Jace asked, looking at Tessa with a small grimace.

"Probably," she replied with a shrug.

"Good," he said, sounding relieved enough to surprise her. "I didn't want to be ashamed of him if I wasn't supposed to be. That would be shameful."

"The fact that you're making jokes right now is shameful," Clary informed him sharply. "Shut up. We need to go."

Tessa blinked. _Someone_ was having a bit of an argument. Her protective older sister side was screaming at her to do something about it, but then her other older sister side was trying not to laugh. She settled for just saying, "We really need to get out of here."

"Jem should be waiting for us by now," Will said. "Come on."

* * *

_**~Jace~**_

Clary wasn't happy with him. That much was obvious by the way that she practically turned the first zombie that came their way into butchered meat and then glared at him as though she would have rather have had another subject to work on. That made him a bit nervous, though he would never admit it aloud. Most of the people in the colony were either dead or gone. He was hoping that they were all just gone and would meet with them at the planned rendezvous point. He had a feeling that it wouldn't happen that way, though.

He didn't look at the corpses that littered the streets as they made their way out the building. He didn't want to know how many of the people that he knew would turn into flesh-eating beasts. Zombies were milling around, turning in their direction as soon as they set their feet on the sidewalk. There was a lone truck driving around, coming their way at top speed. Will's truck.

"Get in the back!" Isabelle's voice shouted from the passenger's seat. Jace grabbed Clary's wrist as he wrenched her forward, away from a particularly fat zombie. Will decapitated it with ease a moment later. Jace forced himself not to recognize the wet _thunk_ that sounded on the sidewalk as the creature fell. He had one of his knives out, slashing at the beasts with his free hand, cutting off hands and heads.

They made it to the truck unscathed by some miracle. Jace grabbed Clary by the waist before she could argue and picked her up, practically throwing her into the bed. He jumped in after her and grabbed Tessa as Will picked her up too. His cousin jumped in last. Clary reached over and hit a woman straggler, who'd had her hand reached out toward Will, with a large metal rod that had been sitting in the back of the truck. The metal went through the rotting flesh and severed the bone with ease. The arm fell to the ground, but Jace couldn't hear the disgusting sound it made over the roar of the truck engine as Jem slammed his foot on the gas.

They were off with a lurch, running over a couple of stragglers before they made it to the middle of the road. Jem jerked the truck around, narrowly dodging corpses and throwing them around the truck bed in the process. Jace was knocked into the wall of the bed, his spine hitting what felt like Clary's metal rod painfully. If that wasn't bad enough, his cousin was ended up slamming into his body. Jace let out a small groan of pain as he shoved Will away from him, only to be knocked into the side of the truck another time, his head hitting the metal once again.

Jace had come to his senses by this time enough to brace himself. He grabbed on to the rivets on the bottom of the bed and managed to stay in one place as the truck lurched to the side. Then the vehicle seemed to speed up even more, and went completely straight. The back window slid to the side and Simon's head stuck out. "Hold on to something!" he called. "It's about to get bumpy!"

"And it wasn't before?" Will demanded wearily.

Simon didn't say anything as he shut the door again. Tessa was next to him. He looked over at her and reached over and put his hand over hers comfortingly. "I think we're about to get out."

"Is that even possible?" Tessa asked fearfully.

"It's not going to be easy and it's not going to be comfortable," Jace promised her with a strained smile. "Make sure that you hold on."

He had enough time to let go of Tessa's hand and hold back on before Jem hit his first straggler. He lurched forward and almost slammed head-first into the front of the truck. He managed to force himself to stay put.

"JACE!" Clary's voice rang shrilly. He looked over at her and saw that she was looking past him. He followed her gaze just in time to see a lone zombie clambering over the top of the truck. It fell in as Jem jerked the truck to the side. Not seeming fazed in the least, the corpse pushed itself forward, aiming a bite at Jace's leg. He retaliated automatically, and brought his foot back and then forward in an awkward kick. The zombie got a face full of boot instead of a face full of skin. Its head snapped backward with a crunch and then it collapsed back to the ground. Jace calmed slightly, thinking that it was done, but then it started moving again. Jace, spun around and backed away before the zombie could take a bit out of him.

He saw that it was a bald older man in a hospital gown. Its nose was now hanging off its face by a patch of rotting skin. Jace kicked at it again, landing a solid blow to the things head, marveling at how determined it seemed to be. Heedless to danger, the zombie continued forward. Jace let out a strangled war-cry as he kicked sideways hitting the creature in the temple with his boot. It was a hard enough blow to send the shell of the old man to the side. Once he was against the truck wall, Jace kicked again as hard as he could. He repeated the process until brain matter was on his shoe and the side of the truck.

It took him a moment to realize that the bumpiness of the ride had stopped and everything seemed to be smooth sailing. He sighed in relief as he moved himself as far away from the body as he could.

He pushed himself into a sitting position and saw the colony in the distance. It was a sad sight; fires had already started erupting and Jace just stared at it uncomprehendingly. Not even thirty minutes ago, his life had been okay. It had been stable and he had been promised a place to sleep during the night. Now, he wasn't promised a thing. His entire life had been pulled out from under him and he wasn't even sure when it had happened.

"This means that Jon failed, doesn't it?" Tessa asked. He could tell by her tone that she already knew the answer. He figured that what she was really afraid of was what it meant. Was Jon alive or not?

"Just because they didn't manage to lure the horde away doesn't mean that they're dead," he said. He gave her an encouraging smile as she pushed herself up against the cab of the truck beside him. "Focus on the positives right now and it might make things easier."

"What's so positive?" Tessa demanded.

"You're alive," he replied. "Clary's alive, and you're with a group of people who know what they're doing and can watch your back. Things could be a lot worse."

* * *

_**~Will~**_

He was sitting in between Tessa and Clary when the truck finally came to a stop. There were maybe four or five stragglers in the middle of the dirt road that Jem had turned down. Will rose to his feet and stepped over Clary's legs as he jumped off the back of the truck. He unsheathed his sword and made quick work of the undead.

He felt hopelessness surging through him so strongly that all he wanted to do was sink to his knees and let it consume him; he didn't though, he kept walking, decapitating zombie after zombie. He had no idea if his family had been able to make it out. Cecily was only sixteen and had only recently begun her training in zombie fighting. Though, her late start might have had more to do with him than her. He just prayed that she didn't pay for his over-protectiveness.

He saw Simon and Jace in the bed of the truck, shoving the intruder zombie off the end. It landed on the road with a _thud_ and a puff of dust. Clary and Tessa were standing off to the side with Magnus and Isabelle. They were all talking quietly to each other.

"What now?" Clary asked aloud, looking in between him and Jace.

His cousin spoke up first as he jumped off the side of the truck, landing in front of her, in an almost cat-like position before straightening up. "We head to the safe house."

"What safe house?" Tessa asked.

"There's an old hotel in the next town," Will explained. "There aren't many stragglers there and the place is huge. It would have been plenty large enough to house as many people as we have in this colony, though I doubt we'll have to worry about spacing issues." He paused as everyone casted each other grim looks. "It was always said that if this kind of thing ever happened, we were to reach that building and wait for the rest of the colony to reach it."

"How long?" Clary asked.

Jem spoke up this time, coughing lowly before saying, "If we leave now, we'll get there before nightfall."

"You're not driving, Jem," Will said sternly. "You need to rest."

"I'll drive," Magnus volunteered. "I've always wanted to see what the fuss about this truck was."

"Please, Mags," Will said, putting his hand on the admittedly grimy exterior of the vehicle, "don't ruin my baby." He figured that joking around at a time like this was in bad taste, but it was either joke or he was going to lose it.

Magnus must have realized that, because he smiled at him and said, "Don't worry, Herondale. It's in very good hands. Do you think just anyone can bedazzle a leather jacket like this?" he gestured to himself and Will noticed the jewel studs around the collar for the first time. "No, they can't, William. It takes talent, and I happen to be talented in just about everything. That includes driving oversized trucks."

"Alright," Will said with a grim smile. "Let's go."

Simon and Jem tried to trade places with Clary and Tessa, trying to be gentlemen and allowing the women to sit inside. They wouldn't have any of it. Both girls climbed into the truck bed and shooed them back to the cab. Will smiled at their stubbornness as he and Jace both hopped in themselves.

"Do you really think that Jon and Alec are going to be okay?" Tessa asked. She was sitting in between him and Clary. She had her face forced into a neutral mask, but Will could see through it. She was scared, terrified even, but she didn't want her little sister to see it. He had a feeling that Clary was able to tell anyway, but she didn't comment on it. Tessa clearly liked feeling in control and Clary allowed for her to feel that way.

"I don't see why they wouldn't be," Will assured her. He smiled down at her and shrugged, "the car was checked out before they left and nothing was wrong with it. They had a full tank of gas and more fuel in the back, and Jon and Alec are both great drivers. The diversion just didn't work. You'll see; they're probably already waiting for us at the hotel along with a bunch of other people."

"You're just saying that to make me feel better," Tessa muttered.

"Well, yeah," Will said. "I'm trying to reassure you, but that doesn't make it untrue. There really isn't a good reason that I can see that Alec and Jon would be harmed. Can you think of one?"

When Tessa slowly shook her head, Will grinned at her. "Now stop worrying about it before you go prematurely grey. I happen to like your hair color."

* * *

**I updated early as a sort of **_**I'm sorry**_ **for the four month absence thing. SO…I told you that things were about to start picking up! Things are getting seriously wrong seriously fast. That's what always happens in a zombie apocalypse, though. I hope you all enjoyed and I promise that I'll be back soon with another chapter *Fingers crossed***

**I'm sorry that I didn't answer anyone's reviews; my life has been rather busy for the past couple of days and I've been lucky to squeeze in time to write this (I'm sure you would rather have new chapter pop up in your alerts than a PM from me, anyways). To the guest reviewer from chapter 3: yes, I have seen the Walking Dead. It's my favorite TV show (Along with Game of Thrones). Thanks for reading!**


	8. Never Stay in Hotels

_**Chapter Eight: Never Stay in Hotels**_

* * *

_**~Clary~**_

The hotel was fenced in a lot like the colony that they had just come from. Clary could tell that it was one of those expensive hotels that the uppity people stayed in while the world was still running. Someone was standing at the gate when they rolled up and opened it immediately to let them in. She recognized the short woman as Charlotte Fairchild. She was excited to see someone that she actually knew.

She smiled at them as she shut the gate behind them hurriedly. There had been no stragglers on the outside, but Clary was fairly certain that the zombies had been there and had been exterminated first thing. She saw a couple of body parts on the ground of the hotel when they stopped. The zombies must have been on the inside as well.

They parked the truck next to the other vehicles. Jace was up first as the others got out of the cab. He jumped off the side and went to the very back of the bed to open up the door. He gestured for them to go to him. Part of Clary wanted to just jump off the side of the road out of spite, but she didn't. Jace was probably just as troubled as she was and didn't need anyone egging him on. She stood up and walked toward him, taking his proffered hand and jumping down.

"I'm glad to see you all got out okay," Luke's voice startled her. Clary turned around and saw him walking toward them from the hotel entrance. "How many in your group?"

"Eight," Will replied as he jumped off the truck bed.

Tessa slid down next to him and walked toward Luke briskly. "Have you seen Jon?"

"Not yet," Luke said with a grim smile. "We have no conclusive evidence that they've been harmed though. If we don't see them by tomorrow, I'll send someone out to look for them, okay?"

Clary felt her stomach lurch at the thought of losing him again and she had to take a deep breath to stop herself from crying.

"The hotel has a back-up generator," Luke said. "It's up and running and we've cleared out the first three floors since we've got here."

"Have you found anything inside?" Jace asked.

"A couple of stragglers," Luke replied. "Nothing too serious though. I figure that if we keep up a steady pace, we can have the hotel completely cleared out by sunrise."

Clary looked up at the sky. The stars were out and the moon had risen past the horizon line. "That's a long time from now," she said. "How many people are back?" she asked.

Luke nodded toward the row of vehicles. There were five of them. "That's how many so far," he said. "That doesn't mean that there won't be more soon. At the moment I think we have almost twenty."

Clary felt her stomach drop at that count. Only twenty people out of almost one hundred so far? That wasn't enough. That wasn't _nearly_ enough. She didn't know most of them, but that didn't matter. The thought of so many people perishing made her heart freeze and the hope that had begun to fill her chest at the thought of civilization coming back shriveled and died on the spot. She felt cold and helpless.

"Cecily?" Will asked Luke quietly.

"She was in the car with me," Luke promised. "I made her go to sleep a little while ago, so don't disturb her right now."

Will nodded slowly, and Clary saw his shoulders sag slightly, as though the relief that he felt caused them to be too heavy to hoist anymore. He clapped his hands together a moment later and then rubbed them back and forth. "Okay!" he said. "Let's clear this thing out!"

He began walking toward the front door of the hotel and Clary looked over at Luke, who had turned around and started following Will inside. "You can wait out here," Jace told her. "I'm sure that Charlotte needs some help, and you'll be able to see Jonathan as soon as he gets back."

"I don't need to be protected, Herondale," Clary grumbled as she pushed past him. She felt a certain amount of spitefulness by his words. Did she look incapable? "I've been dealing with zombies for three years straight. I can take care of myself."

Tessa had already hurried ahead and was walking with Luke and Will inside. She didn't miss the hurt look on Jace's face as she walked by him. She also didn't miss the hand that latched around her wrist and spun her around. "Is there a problem, Fray?" he asked, his voice sounding more like a growl than anything else.

"Yeah," she snapped. "You won't let me go."

"I meant other than that," he said. "Why are you so angry? I was trying to be nice back there! I can tell that you're worried about Jonathan and if there's anything that I know, it's that if you're distracted around stragglers, you die."

"I don't want you looking out for me," Clary informed him, trying to snatch her wrist from his grasp. "You barely know me! I met you like a week ago!"

"So?" Jace demanded. "What's so bad about me having your back?"

"The only person that you depend on is yourself," Clary said. "You need to realize that, Herondale. Everyone else will die; As long as you only depend on you, then you won't need them after they're gone."

Jace let go of her arm slowly and backed away from her, shaking his head. "That's a lonely way to live."

"It's the _only _way to live," she said angrily. "So stop trying to be my friend because it's not going to work."

Jace just nodded curtly and walked past her into the hotel. Clary stayed out in the parking lot a moment later, trying to compose herself. Her chest felt as though a void was opening in it. Jace had only meant well, but the thought of it made her stomach flutter slightly. She couldn't have that. Jace was too crazy and too wild anyway. He was going to get himself killed one day and if Clary formed an attachment to him, it would tear her to pieces.

* * *

The inside of the hotel was actually in surprisingly good shape. A bit of blood stained the marble flooring and there were a few holes in the plaster walls, but Clary had expected a lot worse. Everything was dusty, which wasn't a surprise, and the air in the room was a bit stale. She saw a small pile of dead bodies by the counter top across the lobby. On the far side of the room, a few mats were set up and Clary saw that people were sleeping soundly on them. All the running and screaming from earlier must have exhausted them.

Jace was walking down the hallway, not so much as looking back to see if she was following, or if she even knew where she was going. Isabelle was waiting at the end of the hallway. Her long black hair was pulled up into a ponytail and, the tank top that she had on revealed a lot of scars on her pale skin. Jace stalked past her without so much as a glance and started stomping up the stairs.

Isabelle rolled her eyes and turned to Clary. "He's a drama queen," she informed her with a small grin. "What happened? Did you two have a lovers' spat?"

"_Lovers'_ spat?" Clary repeated incredulously. "I don't think so."

"So what is it then?" Isabelle asked. "I don't think that Jace was walking so funnily because he has something shoved up his ass."

Clary snorted at this and said, "He's just mad because I can take care of myself. Are you going to help kill zombies?"

"I think the better term is _re-kill, _and yeah, I was just waiting for you, actually."

"Me?" Clary asked. "No offence, but you don't really know me."

"I know," Isabelle said, gesturing for her to walk up the stairs. "But you're Jace's newest friend, and from the looks of it, he wants to make you into his new toy-thing. I want to get to know you."

"Toy-thing?" Clary asked, as she climbed the first step. "What do you mean by that?"

"I've seen Will with a couple of them," Isabelle said. "Not Jace, though. He's hot, but doesn't really take advantage of it. He just knows he is."

"That doesn't really answer my question," Clary said. "What does it mean?"

"It means that Jace seems to have taken an interest in you," she said as they passed the second floor and continued up. "He doesn't take an interest in many people. You've really made an impression in him, and considering the fact that you're now refusing him, in whatever way that you are, is probably driving him even crazier."

"The fact that you talk about this so emotionlessly worries me," Clary informed her as they passed the door for the third floor. "Is what you're telling me a good thing or not?"

"Well," Isabelle said. "I find it hilarious. Rejection looks good on him."

"Did he reject you?" Clary asked, wondering if that was why Isabelle sounded so scornful.

"No," she said. "He wishes. I've just seen him flash his smile or show his abs and he gets whatever he wants. It's about time he realized that girls have god given feminine superiority."

"I don't think he likes me," Clary said. "He's just a bit grateful that I saved his life and he's trying to return the favor. I'm not nearly pretty enough for someone like him."

"You're plenty pretty," Isabelle assured her as she grabbed the handle to the fourth floor. "You're just not the stereotypical kind that every guy fantasizes about."

"Enough talk about him," Clary said as they walked down the long hallway of the hotel. "We've got some zombies to fight."

She and Isabelle split up, going past the doors that were already open and walking inside the closed ones further down the hallway.

She walked inside of a room with two large beds crammed inside along with a desk, a closet, and a nightstand. There were three corpses milling around: it looked to be a father, a mother, and a daughter. Clary unsheathed her knife and walked forward. The daughter came at Clary first, her arms stretched in front of her, as if asking for a hug.

Clary didn't think that hugging was a safe idea, so she dodged the girl's arms and drove her knife into her forehead before the corpse could turn. The father was on her next, a strange snarling moan came out of his mouth. Clary backed up and ducked past his flailing arms. She kicked the corpse as hard as she could in the stomach and he stumbled back a couple of steps. She ran forward and past the father, turning around and bringing her knife down on his skull. The dad fell before Clary could snatch her knife out, so she was weaponless as the mother came toward her.

She maneuvered out of the mom's reach, but had to move further away from her weapon. She was by the bathroom, in front of the sinks outside of it. She grabbed the first thing that her hand came in contact with on the counter: a hairdryer. She swung it around just in time to smack the mother in the head. Her face snapped to the side and she staggered sideways. Clary hit her again with the hairdryer, aiming for the temple. The woman's head snapped to the side again, but this time Clary heard a snapping noise. The zombie collapsed to the ground limply.

She sighed in relief and dropped the disgusting hairdryer. She backed away from the corpse with a weary laugh. What she didn't hear was the growl of the corpse behind her. She spun around, just in time to be tackled by the rotting remains of what looked to be the couple's son. A strangled yelp came from her mouth as she hit the ground.

* * *

_**~Jace~**_

The baseball bat that had been in the first hotel room that he'd visited had been a blessing. Using it to bludgeon the zombies seemed like an excellent way to relieve his pent up anger. Too bad it wasn't working as well as he thought it would. He'd already bashed in the heads of five stragglers, but he was still angry. Every time he so much as thought of the color red, he started shaking.

Who did she think she was? He had just wanted to help her! She had no reason to be such a bitch about it. He understood that he might have been a bit rude earlier, before all of this happened, but he figured that she would have been able to get over that given the circumstances.

He heard a yelp as he stalked into the hallway. He frowned and looked around, trying to figure out where the noise came from. Then there was a loud crashing noise. Jace could definitely tell where that had come from. He ran toward the fourth open door on the left and dashed inside the room. There was a large corpse lying on top of someone. He didn't get a good look at whom as he rushed forward. His bat landed on the zombie's head solidly. The creature lurched to the side. Jace saw red hair and inhaled sharply as he brought the bat down again, knocking the corpse completely off Clary before he slammed the bat against the zombie's head as hard as he could.

Brain matter spattered around the corpse, and Jace knew that it wouldn't be getting back up. Clary's breaths were coming out short and quick. One look at her and he could tell that she was in shock. She was scrambling backward with wide eyes.

"Clary," Jace said calmly. She didn't respond, still moving backward on her hands and feet. He moved forward and kneeled in front of her, grabbing her by her shoulders so that she couldn't move. "Clary, listen to me, you're safe, alright?"

She was trembling as she threw herself at him, locking her arms around his neck as she hugged him so tightly that his airways were closed. She was still shaking as she hugged him. He held her close, wrapping his arms around her waist as he leaned back and rested against one of the grimy beds. "It's okay," he whispered to her quietly. "The zombie's dead. You're okay."

He rubbed his arms along her back. Hopefully she took it as a soothing gesture, but what he was really doing was checking for a bite or another scratch. When he didn't feel any, he sighed in relief, but knew that it was possible that they were elsewhere. "Clary," he said quietly. "Did you get hurt? Did he bite you?"

"No," she mumbled. She hugged him even tighter and Jace exhaled in relief. Everything really was going to be okay.

"Why were you searching by yourself?" he asked. "You just got scratched a week ago. If you were going to search, you should have stayed with someone."

She pulled away from him abruptly, and Jace noted the way that they were situated. She was straddling him while he was leaned against a bed…not a bad situation at all. She seemed to notice the same thing, because she went to move away from him. Before she could, however, he looped his arms around her waist and held her in place. "Don't get angry with me," he said forcefully.

"I'm not helpless," she snapped.

"Just because you're not helpless doesn't mean that you're not hurt," he informed her. "Why are you so stubborn?"

"Why does it matter to you?" Clary demanded. "If it's because I saved your life, then just stop! You just returned the favor, no need to keep it up."

"That's not why I care," Jace said, hurt coursing through his body. "A week may not sound like long, but in a place like this a week is like six months in our old world and you know it. I want to be your friend."

"I don't need friends," Clary said.

"Yes, you do," Jace said. He leaned closer to her, so that they were nose-to-nose, "What's the point of living if you don't have something to live for?"

He halfway expected her to try and squirm away from him, or to slap him in the face. He didn't get any of that. All he got was a tired and haggard Clary that looked as though she was about to cry…or at least that was what he thought that she looked like.

"I have Tessa," she said. "My sister's all I need."

"You need more than your sister," Jace said, exasperated.

"You seem like a great guy and all, Jace," Clary said coldly, "but I don't think you have a clue what I need."

"Really?" Jace asked. "Because a couple of minutes ago, I was fairly certain that you needed me to get that monster off you. I can see obvious things, even if you can't, Clary."

"What is so obvious?" Clary demanded.

"That you're afraid of getting close because you don't want to lose the people that you care about," Jace said. "You said that your sister is all you need to live. Well, guess what, Clare. She's made friends. Her, Will, and Jem seem to be like this," Jace crossed his index and middle fingers together and held his hand up to show her. "She realizes that there's more to life than just surviving."

"Screw you, Jace," she said coldly. "You still have a freaking family! I lost _everything_. I watched it get snatched away in front of my eyes two years ago!"

"My parents were killed by the zombies," Jace said quietly. "During the very first wave of the virus, my father was bitten. No one knew what would happen, so he thought that it would be safe to go to bed with my mother. I found him the next morning, eating her. Trust me, I know how it feels to have your entire world slip out from under your feet and spiral out of control. I had to kill them both."

Clary's eyes widened and Jace saw remorse in them. "I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't—"

"You didn't know," Jace replied, almost spitting the words out. "You didn't know because you don't want to know me." He let go of her waist and looked at her expectantly.

Clary sighed, biting her lower lip as she looked at him. "You, of all people, should understand why I don't want to have any friends." She stood up and walked out of the room. Jace just sat where he was for a few more moments before he pushed himself up.

"I don't have to be your friend to look out for you," he said firmly as he walked up behind her. She was opening the next door slowly. "Just because you don't like me doesn't mean that you're not hurt."

She pushed the door all the way open. A corpse lumbered out at her immediately. Clary ducked out from the arms, but before she could do anything else, Jace pulled out one of his blades and stabbed the creature in the temple and wrenched it out before it could fall. "I could have had handled that," Clary informed him as she walked into the room. "Also, I don't dislike you."

"You don't?" Jace asked incredulously as he followed her inside.

"Jace," Clary said calmly as she pushed the bathroom door open carefully, "tell me, how many girls you know that don't like you."

"Aline," he said immediately. "She doesn't."

"Really?" Clary mused. "I met Aline. I think that the reason that _she_ doesn't like you is that you both play for the same team. I'm sure that she likes you as a person, though."

Jace smirked at that and walked over to the closet and opened it. Empty. "This room's clear," he announced.

Clary didn't say anything as she walked out. Apparently her saying that she didn't dislike him wasn't the same thing as saying that she liked him. He sighed, he couldn't win with her; that much was very obvious.

* * *

_**~Tessa~**_

She, Will and Jem volunteered to check out the fifth floor while the others were on the fourth. She liked the idea of looking at it before Clary came bumbling through and got herself hurt. Her sister was a very capable person, but sometimes she didn't pay enough attention to her surroundings. Tessa figured that she was a bit biased, however, because she was Clary's sister.

"So," Will said with a cheeky grin as they walked into the entrance of the fifth floor, "who want to go and check out the monsters?"

"I'm already look at one," Jem quipped. "It's rather ugly and I'm sure that it would be happy if we were to put it out of its misery. Do you think a five story drop would do the trick, Tessa?"

"I'm sure it would, Jem," Tessa agreed with a smile. The two boys made her laugh more than she had in years. Even now when she was worried about just about everything, they still made it impossible not to smile.

She saw Will look at them with a glare that eventually wore into a smile. It was obvious that he was trying hard not to laugh himself. "You guys are so awful to me," he complained. "Didn't you ever learn that bullying is wrong?"

"I distinctly remember the way that you used to treat Jace when we were younger," Jem informed Will as they opened the door to the fifth floor. A few stragglers were shuffling along the hallway aimlessly. As soon as the door creaked, however, they turned and began trying to rush toward them…well as fast as a zombie can rush. So in all actuality, it was really just a little more than a shuffle.

Will jumped forward, sliding his sword out of its sheath as he said, "I don't bully him anymore!"

"No," Tessa agreed. "You have other things to beat up now."

"You mean that you'd rather me allow the corpses to kill me?" Will questioned as he swung the sword in a fast and large arc, taking out three at once. Tessa rushed forward and took down the one that was about to attack him from the side, stabbing it in the temple with her knife. "Admit it Tess," Will said cockily, "You'd miss me if I did that."

"I admit," she said. "I would miss everything but your mouth."

"I'm making progress, Jem!" Will shouted to his best friend, who was slicing through a couple of snarling old women.

Jem turned around when they were down and rolled his eyes at him, "You just think you're making progress, William. In all actuality, she still thinks that you're as repulsive as you find Gideon and Gabriel."

Tessa had no idea who Gabriel and Gideon were, but judging from the look on Will's face, they must have been rather awful people. "No one finds anyone more repulsive than _that_!" he exclaimed. "I don't understand how they're even related to Alec and Isabelle!"

"Cousins," Jem said, rolling his eyes as Tessa dispatched the final zombie, a short woman with a chunk of flesh missing from her cheek. "You know, the same way that you and Jace are related?"

"Please," Will pleaded. "Don't compare me or anyone in my bloodline to either of those…those…"

"I'm pretty sure the words you used last time were _tenacious bastards_," Jem said helpfully.

Tessa saw Will nod slowly in agreement. "That sounds about right."

"You guys shouldn't be so rude," Tessa admonished.

Will looked at her with a gaping mouth and wide eyes. His hand hovered over the first door, but he didn't go anywhere, though, too busy looking at her in apparent disbelief. "This is coming from the girl that hit me over the head with a…whatever, not even two minutes after we met!"

"First off," Tessa said, "it was a vase, and secondly, I didn't know you. You shouldn't be rude to people that you know that you are counting on protecting you."

"I wouldn't count on either of those Lightwoods to protect themselves, let alone anyone else," Will informed her. "You would do well to remember that if you ever get the displeasure of meeting one. Please, Tess, do me a favor and don't trust them."

Tessa looked past Will and over to Jem, who was standing in front of the door next to his. He looked uncomfortable, as though he felt bad about what Will was saying, but just because he felt bad about it didn't mean that he disagreed.

"Alright," she said with a small nod. "I won't."

"Good," Will said. He turned and opened his door. Tessa walked to the one directly across from him and opened it. The first two rooms that she went into were wonderfully empty. There were no zombies, nothing at all. She was worried and pretty happy at the same time. Each time she was see Will or Jem, they would have grime on their blades, letting her know that they'd fought off new creatures. She'd been the lucky one. She knew how well luck ended.

Then she heard it. There was a growl coming from the next room. She grabbed her knife, prepared for some action as she slowly turned the knob. It opened with a low creak and she blinked at what she saw in front of her. A golden retriever was sitting down. He was thinner than was probably healthy, but Tessa was more concerned with the fact that the dog was actually still _alive_. She was pretty sure that the virus that had consumed the human race hadn't traveled into animals, thank god, but she hadn't seen any animals around in a while, not that she had really thought about it.

"Tessa?" Jem's voice sounded across the hallway. She didn't even turn around. She felt a part of her reprimanding herself for being rude, but there was a larger part that was more concerned with the dog. There was footsteps and then Jem was next to her.

He muttered something quietly that didn't sound as though it was English, probably an explicative. She finally tore her eyes off the dog and turned to look at her companion. He was staring at the dog with widened eyes. "How is it still alive?"

"I'm out here risking my life, chopping off heads of countless zombies and you two are just dawdling around!" Will's voice rings next. He actually sounds aggravated.

Tessa turned around, and Jem does too. "_Dawdling_?" Jem questioned. "Strange word choice."

The dog growled again, obviously not liking Will's tone. Will paused and frowned at Tessa and Jem. "Tell me that was just one of your stomachs."

"Not at all," Jem said cheerfully. "It was Tessa's new friend! I don't think it appreciated the way that you were just speaking, either. You might want to apologize."

"What is it?" Will asked, but Tessa could tell by the look on his face that he already knew. Jem took a step to the side and Tessa mimicked him, stepping in the opposite direction, so that the thin golden retriever was visible. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Not at all," Tessa replied. She knelt down toward the dog, smiling slightly at it. "It's _adorable_, though," and it really was. With its shaggy golden hair that was admittedly dirty, and the way that it had its mouth open as it panted made it look as though it was smiling. "Nothing's ever adorable anymore."

"I'm admittedly jealous of the dog," she heard Will mutter to Jem, who snorted quietly. "He's gotten father with her in five minutes than I have in a week."

"Cheer up," Jem said, "you're at a disadvantage. Clearly, this dog's cuter than you."

"I'll have you know that plenty of females have informed me that I am very cute," Will said humorously. "C'mon, Tess, admit it. You know I'm just as adorable as the dog."

She looked over at Jem incredulously, who just shrugged. He remained unhelpfully silent. She saw a small smile threatening to break through on his face and knew that he was silently enjoying the discomfort. "Yes, William," she said, "you're just as cute as a dirty dog." She pushed herself to her feet and smiled down at it, "come on. Let's get you downstairs. There's probably some food down there that you can eat."

The dog seemed to be smart enough to not bark. It just stood up and wagged its tail. Tessa walked back toward the doorway that they had come through and the dog followed her. Will looked over at Jem who sighed and gestured for him to do the same. Neither one of them was prepared to allow her to go by herself. "Let's go, William," Jem said, "so you can start you competition with a dammed dog."

* * *

_**~Will~**_

It took a while for the hotel to be marked off as safe and even then he was still uneasy, though that might have had something to do with the fact that hordes were starting to line up at the gates, looking for food. People had been out, ramming knives and rods through to kill the stragglers, but it would take a while before all of them were dead…well _actually_ dead.

He was sitting in one of the suits that probably hadn't been used for years _before_ the apocalypse had broken out it looked expensive. There had been no stragglers inside and the beds look dustier than the rest that he had seen. He was in the living room with Jem, Tessa, Magnus and Isabelle. Clary and Jace had both retired to be as soon as the doors had opened. Their silence had been stiff and angry. Isabelle seemed to know why, but wasn't sharing, just glancing at the separate doors that they had entered with twitching lips.

The dog was curled up by Tessa's feet sound asleep. The girls had been ecstatic over the new find and Magnus had mentioned something about a blink-collar. He was probably referring to something that would match Magnus' own wardrobe. "So," Isabelle said, with a small yawn, "what are you going to call him?"

"I don't know," Tessa said with a small shrug. "I haven't even really decided if I'm going to keep him of not. I mean, can we even really keep up with dogs in this kind of world? We'll have enough problems feeding us and he's just another mouth."

"He's the first animal to come around, though," Magnus said, "Do you really want to give that up?"

"I want to make sure that the rest of us are alive," Tessa said. "He can't be taken care of before us."

"He can take care of you," Will said, frowning at her. "You should keep him. You never know, Tess. He seems very protective. He might save your life one of these days."

Tessa looked over at him questioningly and he smiled at her and nodded down at the dog, "You should name him."

"What do you think?"

"He reminds me of my cousin," Will mused, "maybe you should call him Jace."

"I am no naming a dog after your cousin," Tessa said sternly. She looked over at the doorway that he'd disappeared behind worriedly before saying, "he seems troubled enough as it is."

Will nodded slowly in agreement and said, "We can worry about him and his dramatics later. Worry about you and your dog right now. If you don't want to name him Jace, then what do you want to name him?"

"What about Church?" Jem asked, looking down at the dog curiously.

Tessa smiled at the name before she turned to look at Jem. The three of them were sitting on a couch, with Tessa in the middle. "I like that name, Jem." She looked down at the dog, "What about you, do you like Church?"

The dog looked up at her and cocked its head to the side for a moment before its tail began wagging and it let out a low bark that must have been a sound of approval.

"There you are, Tess," Will said, slinging his arm around her shoulder, "you have the only pet in the zombie apocalypse." He thought that she would just wrench away from him, but she didn't. She just smiled faintly and leaned into his embrace in a strange sort of hug. He didn't care, though. It was enough for him. He looked over her heat at Jem, who was looked at him with a raised eyebrow, and grinned.

This girl was full of surprises, though he'd known that since day one.

* * *

**Firstly, yes, I am aware that Church is a cat. I just figured that cats would be useless in this kind of world and…well, I don't like cats all that much, so this is what I got. He is a golden retriever!**

**What do you think about Jace and Clary's confrontation? Who do you think is right about their differences? Do you think that Jon and Alec are dead? Did you like the chapter? Well…I hope you liked the chapter. Anyway, I hope this holds you over until I can update again!**


	9. Never Fight With Frays

_**Chapter Nine: Never Fight with Frays**_

* * *

_**~Clary~**_

She woke up to someone pounding on her door so loudly that her eardrums rattled. She sat up in her musty and dusty bed and looked around with half-lidded eyes. Light was shining through her window brightly, so she was willing to bet that it was around midday, but considering the fact that she'd pulled an all-nighter, she didn't think that she should be expected to wake up at all. She scowled at the doorway, for a moment, wondering if just her glare would be enough to make the intruder piss off.

**Bang! Bang! Bang!**

"Go away!" she snapped loudly, flopping back down on to the mattress. She was tired and she knew that she wasn't the nicest person in the world when she hadn't had her beauty sleep.

"Either get out here, or I'm coming in!" Will's voice sounded.

Clary frowned as she looked down. She hated sleeping in jeans, so she'd shimmied out of them before she'd gotten into bed earlier that morning, and there was no way that she was letting him see her so indecent, on the other hand there was no way that she was about to let him talk to her like that.

"Shut up, and go away, prick!" she snapped. "Go harass my sister!"

"You're a little witch in the mornings," Will shouted through the doorway, "I feel bad for Tessa!" There was silence for another moment, and then Will said, "You asked for it, Clare!"

The door slammed open and Will barged inside. Clary shrieked and toppled off the side of the bed, hopefully before he could get a good view of anything. He stood in the doorway with his arms crossed and a frown on his face as he looked at the spot where she was hidden by the mattress. She rose slightly so that she could look at him with a matching scowl. "What the hell, Herondale?" she snapped.

"Don't be so overly dramatic," Will scoffed at her, "it isn't like…" he trailed off as he saw her pants strewn on the floor where she had left them. He raised an eyebrow and a smirk slowly started to spread on his face. It was there that Clary could see the most resemblance between him and Jace and at the moment she hated it. "Well, maybe it is like that. Did Jace sneak in here some time during the night?"

Clary felt her jaw drop as she looked at him with wide, disbelieving eyes. "William Herondale!" she shrieked. "Get the hell out of here or so help me, I'm going to rip you—"

"Whatever you do, my dear Clarissa," Will said, "as long as you do it dressed like that I'm sure I'll be completely okay with it."

Clary's cheeks reddened as he snickered and backed out of the room, grabbing the knob of the door and swinging it shut behind him, making a flourishing bow before he was completely blocked from view. She pushed herself to her feet, grumbling under her breath as she walked over and grabbed her pants. Stupid Herondales. Stupid Will for disturbing her. Stupid Jace for pissing her off. She sighed, at least Will was tolerable. He meant well and his antics didn't make her feel strange like Jace's did. She could stand being around Will, even if he was the single most annoying person to ever grace the planet with his presence.

She pushed the door open and looked at Will, who was lounging on the couch with Magnus at his side. Clary scowled at this. Why couldn't Magnus have woken her up? At least she wouldn't have felt as flustered if he would have caught her in her underwear. "Don't look like that, Clary," Will said, "pink is a really good color on you."

She grabbed the closest thing to her, a picture on the wall, and chucked it at him. Magnus yelped and dove for the ground while Will flopped completely on the couch where Magnus had been half a second before so that he was laying down. The picture skidded on the floor a few feet from the couch, the glass from the frame exploding everywhere.

"Oi, Fray!" Will said indignantly as he sat back up cautiously, "That would have been my face!"

"That was the point!" Clary snapped, "I'm sure bloody glass would have been a really good color on you."

Magnus, who was still on the ground, proceeded to roll around, practically cackling at the look on Will's face. The older Herondale cousin was looking at her a surprised scowl.

"Feisty, aren't we?" Will asked, his face morphing into a grin. "I like this one, don't you, Bane?"

"Oh, yes," Magnus said as he began to take deep breaths to calm himself. "She's _perfect_. Tell me, Clarissa, is it because you have red hair?"

Magnus pushed himself into a sitting position and turned so that he was leaning against the couch looking at her. He was still grinning from ear to ear as he just looked at her.

"What do you mean _this one_?" Clary asked, ignoring Magnus' question. She crossed her arms over her chest as she turned and looked around, possibly for another picture frame to throw.

Both just looked at her, their smiles slowly fading. Will pushed himself into a sitting position as he rested his elbows on his thighs. "It's not important right now," he said quietly. "I'll tell you later, okay? Right now, you need to go down to the lobby."

"Why?" Clary asked, frowning.

"Well," Will said, "before you threatened to kill and then actually attempted to kill me, I was going to tell you that Jon and Alec were back. They just got back a few minutes ago, which is why I was the one to wake you. I told Tessa to go ahead down and see her brother and that I would get you up for her."

"Why aren't you down there," Clary asked, looking at Magnus, as she started walking to the door. Her curiosity was the only thing stopping her from all-out sprinting to lobby.

"Alec needs time with his family," Magnus replied with a small smile. "I love him, but it isn't requited, Clarissa. Don't worry about it, though. I'll see him later."

She rushed out of the room and dashed down the stairwell as quickly as she could. There were a few people going downstairs slowly, but Clary shoved past all of them impatiently, nearly tripping over a pair of men who had stopped and were holding a conversation at one of the floor levels. She narrowly dodged them and continued running, taking the stairs as quickly as her short legs would allow her.

She hit the bottom step still running and shoved the door open without breaking her stride. The lobby was mostly empty, but a group of people was crowded in the middle.

Clary stopped and caught her breath as she made out the people that were there. She saw Isabelle first, with her long black hair, then Tessa, who was practically jumping up and down with excitement as she clung on to the arm of the one person that Clary was excited to see.

Jonathan's white-blond hair was a disaster. He looked dirty, haggard and tired, but he was alive. Her brother was still alive. She let out the strangest squeal as she dashed forward, completely forgetting about her fatigue. She shoved past all the bystanders, including her own sister, as she jumped at her brother. Jonathan caught her in midair and wrapped his arms around her, clutching her tightly to him.

"Happy to see me, baby sis?" Jon asked with a weary chuckle.

Clary nodded into his neck as she wrapped her arms around him. "You're not allowed to leave me ever again," she said. "We're a family, dammit, and we're going to stick together!"

"This must be the other girl that you were talking about," a voice said to the side. Clary slowly let go of Jonathan, who let her slide to the ground. She turned and saw a large guy with black hair and dark, almost black eyes. His accent was foreign, it sounded almost French. "She is very pretty."

Clary looked back up at Jon, who was looking over at the stranger. He rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Don't mind him, Clare," he said, looking back down at Clary. "It's just in his nature. This is Sebastian Verlac. He saved my and Alec's asses. The car broke down maybe halfway from a town past this one and the horde was on us. If he wouldn't have come to the rescue, I would have been food for the stragglers."

"Thank you," Clary said sincerely, giving Sebastian an earnest smile. Any guy that could bring her brother back to her was a good guy in her books.

Sebastian waved his hand in a dismissive manner and said, "Your sister, Tessa said the same thing. It brought me to the presence to such fine women; I can't see why it wouldn't be completely worth the effort."

Clary gave him a small smile. "I'm being serious," she said. "I'm very grateful, Sebastian."

"Speaking of people that saved my neck," Jon said, "Alec did literally." He turned Clary away from the new guy and toward the quiet boy that was surrounded by family members. "He killed a straggler that was about a millimeter from taking a chunk out of that very body part."

Clary grinned over at Alec, who was hugging Isabelle. Jace was standing next to him, looking at Clary with his lips set into a thin line. He wasn't happy about something. Alec looked past Isabelle and over at Clary and smiled in return. He must have overheard Jon.

She moved past Jon and grabbed Alec once Isabelle released him, pulling him into a large hug. "Thank you so much!" she said with a small laugh. "I don't know what I would do without you."

"Don't worry about it," Alec said, patting her on the back. "Your brother's saved my ass before."

"Do I not get a hug?" Sebastian asked jokingly. "I saved their lives too, after all."

Clary turned around and wrapped her arms around him in a brief embrace. When she pulled away from him, she smiled at his goofy grin and said, "Thank you," as seriously as she could. She turned back around and was about to say something to Alec, when she realized that Jace was gone. She blinked confusedly and looked around, wondering if she would spot him around the room. He wasn't in the lobby at all.

"He left," Isabelle said in her ear.

Clary spun to face her, jumping slightly from surprise. Isabelle was looking at her with an almost smug expression as she crossed her arms over her chest. Clary felt heat rise to her cheeks if only because she realized that it had been that obvious that she had been looking for Jace. If she had a problem with her looking so hard for him, she didn't show it. She just smiled at Clary and said, "He didn't look too happy either. I mean, he just walked out when you were hugging that really hot new guy."

She opened her mouth to say something to Isabelle, though she didn't know what she was going to say, so the only thing that came out of her mouth was air. Isabelle smiled at her almost smugly and patted her on the shoulder, "I feel for you Clary," she said, though Clary had no idea if Isabelle was being genuine or not. She then walked past Clary and toward Sebastian. She faintly wondered how Simon was going to take this. Clary had a feeling that Isabelle wasn't shy and she knew that Sebastian wasn't.

"I'm sorry that I can't extend this reunion, little sister," Jon said, placing his hand on her shoulder, "but I have to go and get some sleep."

* * *

_**~Jace~**_

He was leaning against the wall outside, trying to keep his frustration in check. She was just so _annoying_! How was it fair that she could prance around and hug Alec and a complete freaking stranger with an accepting smile on her face, but she refused to even so much as look at him? What had he done to her that was so bad to her?

"Alright, Herondale," Clary's voice snapped him out of his reverie. He turned around and saw the center of all of his anger standing outside of the doorway of the hotel with her arms crossed over her chest as she glared at him. "Spit it out," she snapped at him irritably. "Go on and tell me what's wrong so we can fix it!"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Jace snarled, too angry to even consider the fact that she had come to him. "I came out here to get away from…from people. Just go back in there and talk to your _friends. _That's what they are right? They're your friends. I wouldn't know because I'm not allowed that privilege!"

"They're not my friends," Clary shot back defensively. "I was just grateful that they saved my brother! I'm sure you felt the same way toward Sebastian and Jon!"

"I saved your life twice!" Jace exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air angrily. "Why is it that I save your life and you hate me, but you're willing to show gratitude toward a stranger that was hitting on you in front of your brother like a complete jackass?"

"I'm not fishing for compliments," Clary said, her voice weary as all the fight seemed to drain out of it. "I don't want to hear pretty words. I just want the truth."

"I won't lie to you," Jace swore. She had piqued his interest more than just a little with the way that she was talking. "I can't promise that you'll like the truth of whatever you're looking for with a tone like that though."

"Why do you care if I'm your friend?" Clary asked. "If it's just because I rejected you, then I think we really just need to stay away from each other."

"I doubt that you'll want anything to do with me either way," Jace remarked coldly. Her question had rubbed him the wrong way, and he felt a bit of resentment settling in the pit of his stomach. "I admit that your rejections only fuel the drive I feel to get you to accept the fact that I'm going to be your friend, but that's not why. I want to be your friend because I've never met anyone half as crazy as me and my cousin before I met you." Her frown seemed to deepen as he spoke. He crossed his arms over his chest and said, "I've wanted to be your friend ever since you proved that you were insane enough to stop that straggler from getting to me. So don't insult me like that, Fray. You're stubborn as hell and apparently you have a very large cruel streak, but I can tell that somewhere deep down you don't want to be a loner."

"You don't know everything," Clary remarked coldly. "You have no idea what I want!"

"Oh," Jace challenged, "I'm pretty sure that I know pretty much everything. Tell me, Clary, does the fact that an attractive guy is chasing after you in this desolate wasteland rub you the wrong way?" he raised an eyebrow and looked at her. "Go on, Clare, you want to be the person without anyone else, so tell me this. I want to know if you really mind the fact that I'm giving you so much attention. Tell me that you don't like it and I swear that I'll stop."

She looked at him for a few seconds and Jace stared back silently. Then he walked forward and pushed past her before she could answer, afraid that he would have to hear something that he honestly didn't want to hear.

* * *

Jace decided that Clary really should get a good taste of what she was asking for, so he backed off. He didn't speak to her; he didn't look at her. Heck, he even went out of his way to make sure that they were in the same room as little as possible.

He was miserable, and he knew that she was too. She was too proud to admit to it though, so they kept this charade up. Everyone around them must have realized that something was off in the four weeks that they had been at the hotel, but no one had commented on it…to him at least.

Things came out when he and the other guys were sitting on the couch in the living room of the suite that they all shared. The girls had the suite across the hall from them, and were god knows where doing who knew what.

He was lounged against the arm of the sofa, his head resting in his hand as he fought to keep his eyes open. He'd done guard duty with Simon the night before and the pair of them had been attacked by a flock of stragglers outside of the fence. Both had come close to death quite a few times and Jace was grateful for Lewis having his back more than he would ever admit out loud.

He had just gotten in and plopped down with Simon. Neither one had been to bed yet, so Jace was gathering the willpower to actually make it to one of the rooms. He was fairly sure that Simon was doing the same thing when Will spoke up from his spot on the chair.

It was one of those office chairs that Jace hated. It creaked and groaned whenever it moved, and Will enjoyed spinning around in it like he was four years old. That was why Jace heard the loud noise that was a mixture of a cat drowning and nails being scraped against chalkboard, he immediately scowled in his cousin's direction. Will had moved from facing the wall to facing him slowly, dragging out the creaks and groans. His face was very serious as his hands clasped together in his lap.

"Jace," he said, his voice light and calm, as though he was talking to either a wounded animal or someone that he was about to commit to a psyche ward. Both thoughts puzzled Jace. Had he done something wrong again? "I think we need to talk."

"Dude," Jace said, stifling a yawn, "I'm pushing thirty-six hours without sleep. I know that I have natural good looks, but I'm pretty sure that I need at least some form of sleep to continue looking so flawless. Whatever it is that you need to talk about is going to have to wait."

"It has to be now," Will replied, his expression never wavering from that serious mask as he looked at him. "Suck it up, man."

"_Suck it up?"_ Jace repeated incredulously. "I've been up over a whole freaking day! You've had your beauty sleep! Now shut up and—"

"I waited until you were this tired for a reason," Will said. He leaned forward, his hands still clasped in his lap. The chair creaked as his weight shifted. "It's time for an intervention and I know that you're—"

"An intervention from _what_?" Jace demanded. He looked away from his cousin and toward Simon, Alec, Magnus, and Jon. "Is anyone going to explain why I'm having an intervention or are you all just going to look at me like imbeciles?"

"This is why we're having an intervention," Will said calmly.

Jace's head snapped back to his cousin. He was tired, but there was a chance that he could make it to his room before he had to sit through anything. "You've been off ever since Jon and Alec got back. Not only you, Clary—"

He abruptly stood up and said, "Nope, I've heard enough. You guys can go screw yourselves, because we're not having an intervention about this! Forget it!"

"That's my sister," Jon said, his voice unnaturally serious. He stood up and looked at Jace with his arms crossed and his eyebrows knitted together in a frown. "As my friend, please sit down and let us talk to you."

"I'm your friend," Jace said. "That doesn't mean that I don't have boundaries. I am not about to sit here and talk with you or anyone else about my relationship, or lack thereof, with your sister."

"Jace," Will said. He stood up too. "This can be done the easy way or the hard way. You're going to talk to us, though, make no mistake."

"I promise you," Jace said, "that if you guys piss me off enough, I won't ever talk to any of you again, including my own cousin. Now leave it alone. I'm handling everything just fine."

"You're a mess," Will snapped. "That is not _fine_!"

"We live in a place that can only be described as hell," Jace snarled. "We have about fifty thousand different problems for you guys to be focusing on. _Why _are you looking at this one? Seriously, guys! It doesn't matter how I act; I'm doing my job and I'm not hurting anyone, so just leave me alone."

Jace turned around and didn't look back as he walked into his room and closed the door behind him. As soon as he saw his bed, he sighed and moved forward. His bed was all the company he needed right now.

* * *

He woke up to someone yelling loudly. His door slammed open and he was on his feet, reaching toward the nightstand where he'd put his knives before he'd gone to bed. By the time he had them in his hand and looked back over at the threat, all he saw was a streak red, a streak of bright yellow and a streak of black. He blinked, trying to get over some of his grogginess, but before he had the chance to make out what the hell was going on, the door slammed shut again.

"What the hell you guys?"

Jace blinked. He'd been thinking about saying that line, but it sounded a bit too real to be just his thoughts. In the dim light of his room, it was very hard to see anything, but as he got closer, he was able to make out the silhouette of a very short woman that was pounding on his door with a surprising amount of strength. Jace took a cautious step closer, afraid that he might actually know who it was.

Oh, god. They'd thrown Clary in his room.

* * *

_**~Tessa~**_

"Are you sure that all of this is absolutely necessary?" Tessa asked, crossing her arms over her chest as she looked at Will and Jon, who were pushing a huge dresser in front of Jace's door. Part of her wanted to know where the dresser had come from, but another part was still too stuck on Clary being in a room alone with Jace and Jon being not only okay with, but supportive of it.

Will stopped when the dresser was halfway over the pathway and stood up, wiping a bit of built up sweat off his brow. "Yeah," he nodded, "this is absolutely necessary. My cousin's a pigheaded idiot, and your sister is whatever nicer version of that name that you would like me to call her."

Tessa sighed and shook her head, "No, pigheaded idiot sounds about right."

Will grinned at her, as though saying, _'you now get my point' _and started pushing on the dresser again. It took them a few moments of struggling to get it to the right spot, and as they were pushing, Tessa pretended to not enjoy the view she had of Will's muscles straining against the object.

"I don't know what you guys think you're doing!" Jace's voice rang through the door. The wood vibrated where Tessa imagined he'd either punched or kicked it.

"Come on, little cousin," Will said mockingly, "I'm sure you're smart enough to deduce exactly what's going on."

"And you should be smart enough to deduce that I'm going to _murder_ you and Jon when I get out of here!" Jace snapped. The entire door shuddered, but Will only rolled his eyes, as though he wasn't worried about him breaking through.

"You know me too well to really think that there's really a chance of you getting out until I want you out," Will said.

"I hate you," Jace's voice rang through the door. It was cold, emotionless and so serious that it gave Tessa chills.

"I think he's angry," Jon muttered.

"So is Clary," Will said. "You never told me how sharp her elbows are." He rubbed his side for a moment before saying loudly toward the door, "Work everything out, you guys, because you're not getting out until you do."

There was more slamming on the door, but thanks to the dresser, nothing happened. "Come on," Tessa said, "they'll be at this for a while before they wear themselves out. We can go and relax in my suite until we have to work."

"What's the odds of this working?" Tessa asked as they walked to the door.

"Not at all!" Jace's voice rang from the room as the door banged again.

Will rolled his eyes and opened the door. "I guess you'll be in there forever, then!" he called back. He gestured for them to walk ahead of him.

Tessa walked out first, followed closely by Jon.

"Herondale and Fray, right?" a voice called. Tessa turned and saw a beautiful girl with curly blond hair running toward them.

"You know who we are Jessamine, even if you don't want to claim us," Will said, sounding almost bored. "I don't _want_ to claim you, but I don't act like you're a stranger."

Jessamine scowled at him and snapped, "Luke wants to see you guys. Where're the other two?"

"Asleep," Will lied smoothly. "They're tired and not feeling good. Whatever Luke has to say, I'm sure that we'll be able to pass the word on."

Jessamine shrugged, as though she really didn't care either way. "Whatever. He's in his room. Go and talk to him, then."

She walked off with her head held high, an almost haughty bounce in her step. "What's her problem?" Tessa asked quietly.

"She's not originally from our group," Will explained. "Her old group was attacked by zombies and her parents were killed along with everyone but her. "I think she has the same mentality as your sister does, except I don't think she would save anyone given the chance. She's grown bitter to the world and I think that the only reason that she's still alive is because we're making her stay that way."

Tessa grimaced at the thought, but Will patted her shoulder. "It isn't your fault. You've lost just as much as she has and you're not bitter."

Tessa smiled at him. Will was a great guy; she was really starting to see that. Jon abruptly pushed on Tessa, moving her forward. "Let's go, big sister," he said hurriedly. "Luke wanted to see us, remember?"

Tessa walked forward, nodding her head. "Right," she said. "Thank you, Jon."

"Yeah," she heard Will say, though there was something that sounded a lot like annoyance in his voice. "_Thank you_, Jon."

* * *

_**~Will~**_

He knew that Jon could feel the daggers that he was staring into his back all the way to Luke's room, which was two floors down from theirs. What he pulled was so not cool, and Jon knew it.

Tessa knocked on Luke's door, but when there was no answer, Will shoved Jon to the side and gently moved Tessa out of the way before simply opening the door and walking inside. "William Herondale!" Tessa scolded. He felt something grab his shoulder and wrenching it back. He turned and saw her standing right behind him with her arms closed. "I'm going to teach you manners one of these days, I swear I will!"

"Calm down, Tess," Will said. "I don't think manners are very important anymore."

"I'd listen to Tessa, Will," Luke's voice came behind him. "Humanity isn't something that we should give up because the world seems to be ending."

"What did you need from us?" Jon asked. "Sorry you couldn't get all of us, but Jace and Clary are sleeping."

"It's no problem," Luke said. "I just know that Will and Jace are normally the two that go on raids, and it's time for Jon, Clary, and Tessa to learn the trade…that's if they're willing to, of course."

"Of course we are," Jon said hurriedly, a grin on his face. Will knew that he'd been going crazy because of the constant monotony around the hotel. Even if it meant risking his life, he would be willing to go. Will felt the exact same way.

He didn't know how Clary would feel about going on a raid with him and Jace…well, he had a feeling it would be the Jace part that got the best of her. With any luck, however, they would be okay with each other by the time they had to leave.

"Okay then," Luke said, with a smile. He turned and walked over to a desk that was shoved into the corner of his room and pulled out a sheet of paper. "This is a list of things that we need. Most of the objects from the hotel have been either used up or have gone bad. I'm going to have to ask you guys to head out tomorrow morning. Do me a favor and give me Jace and Clary's answers before you go to bed tonight."

"That's no problem," Tessa said. She gave Luke a polite smile and said, "Thank you for trusting me enough to put this much responsibility."

"Like I said," Luke replied, "I knew your parents very well." He smiled and said, "If you need anything else before tomorrow morning, just stop by and I'll do what I can for you."

Taking that as a dismissal, Will grabbed Tessa by the hand and pulled her toward the door. "See you later with their answer, Luke." He turned to Tessa and Jon, who had followed them out. "I've got to go and check on my baby and make sure that she's ready for use. You guys want to come with me?"

"Uh, no," Jon said. He faked a yawn and said, "I'm going to go and take a nap before I brave the suit again and pack a bag. I'll see you guys later. Tess, I'll be taking your room."

"Okay," Tessa said, she turned to Will and smiled, "I'll come with you."

Will grinned and didn't release his hold on her hand as he pulled her toward the stairwell, the opposite way as Jon. Tessa paused, though, and turned to look back at Jon, "Be careful, Jonathan!" she yelled. "Church is in my room and he doesn't like surprises!"

"Thanks for the warning!" Jon called back with a grin.

* * *

**I swear…Tessa's one lucky girl. What I would do to attract the attention of something like William Herondale…sigh.**

**OKAY! I am anxious to know what you think of Jace and Clary's situation at the moment. Do you think that Will, who's capacity knowledge is only rivaled by his capacity to screw things up, has the right idea by locking them up, or do you think this is going to explode in his face?**

**The next chapter is prep for their raid and then the chapter after that, they're off, facing the perils of zombies and each other! What could possibly go wrong?**


	10. Never go Anywhere Unprepared

_**Chapter Ten: Never go Anywhere Unprepared**_

* * *

_**~Clary~**_

The term _pissed off_ didn't even begin to describe how she felt about being in Jace's room. He looked as though he was about as happy as she was with how he was practically throwing himself at the door, not heeding Will's warnings about it being impossible for him to get out.

"Jace," she said, her voice too quiet to be heard over the sound of his body slamming against the door. "JACE!" she snapped more loudly, managing to get his attention. He tensed before he turned away from the door and leveled his gaze on her.

"What?" he snapped. His golden eyes were glowing in irritation as he crossed his arms over his chest and looked at her. "If you didn't notice, I was kind of working on getting you out so I can go back to sleep, Fray!"

"You pounding on the door isn't going to achieve anything other than giving me a headache," she snapped at him irritably. "Will already said that there's no way that we're getting out, and you've been at it for a good ten minutes! Do me a favor and just stop!"

He glared at her before his face morphed into a mocking grin. "So you want be in here, do you Fray?" he asked. "Sorry to say that I'm not interested in any sort of fun-time that we could have in the bedroom at the moment."

His words hurt to hear, but she didn't show it. She simply rolled her eyes and said, "I'm not interested anyway, Herondale. You don't have to be such an asshole, though."

"I don't know what you're talking about?" Jace replied coldly. "This is how I always act!" He looked over at his bed longingly before turning to glare at her and said, "I can't believe you got yourself thrown in here!"

"How is this my fault?" Clary demanded, throwing her hands in the air. "I woke up to Will and Jon _attacking _me!"

"You couldn't have fought harder?" Jace demanded angrily. "I'm sure you could have!"

Clary blinked at him, her mouth gaping open in disbelief. "Do you even hear yourself, Herondale? I fought as hard as I could! Sadly, I was outnumbered by a couple of guys that also happened to outweigh me by around a hundred pounds or more _each_!"

Jace glared at her before saying, "Take the bed. I'll sleep on the dammed floor." He walked over to the mattress and grabbed one of the blankets before moving on to the closet that she imagined had a spare set of blankets.

"Jace," she said, "What are you talking about? I'm not taking the bed and making you sleep on the floor!"

"Your only other option is that I sleep on the bed with you," Jace snapped, turning to look at her with a scowl. "I doubt that you want that, so just go and get into bed."

"Let's get one thing straight," Clary snapped, walking up to him. She knocked the pillow that he had in hand to the floor and stepped in front of him, slamming the closet door shut with her hip before Jace could stop her. She crossed her arms over her chest as she snapped, "I'm not one of those idiots that you're going to be able to boss around. I'm not going to bow under you because you think that you're some gift to women from God. Got it? You don't give me options! Now, if you want to act like a complete asshole, don't do it because I _hurt your feelings_, okay? I don't know if you noticed, but I wasn't the one who started this stupid separation, that was you!"

"Move out of my way, Fray," Jace growled. He was so angry that he was physically shaking. The thought made her nervous, but she didn't move, knowing that she would be showing weakness if she did. His hand flashed forward in a fist and hit the door beside her head. "Did you hear me?" he snapped. "Move out of my way before I make you!"

"Then make me!" she snapped, "Because I'm not moving until you tell me what the hell your problem is!"

"Let's try the fact that I see that you're buddy-buddy with everyone!" he snapped angrily. "Did you not think that I couldn't see you laughing with Will, Jem, and Sebastian? Excuse me if I'm not one for false pretenses, Clary. You hate me, so I figured that there was no need to be nice! Does that answer your question?" Jace questioned angrily.

Clary opened her mouth to retort, but no sound came out. How was she supposed to tell him what she was thinking when her mind was so muddled that she really couldn't register what she was thinking herself.

"I…I—"

"I don't want to hear it anymore, Clary," Jace said tiredly. He looked down at her with his shoulders slumped. He suddenly looked tired and haggard, as though he had taken a lot more than he could handle in a small amount of time. She knew all about that feeling. "I don't want any excuses; I don't even want to know why you hate me. I don't care."

"For the love of God, Jace," Clay said exasperatedly, "I don't hate you!"

"Really?" Jace demanded heatedly. "I'd like to know what you call it, because that's exactly what it seems like you feel!"

"Whatever, Jace," she muttered exasperatedly. She walked away from him and over to the doorway, where she slide down to the floor and just sat there, staring blankly at the bed in front of her.

"What are you doing?" Jace asked exasperatedly. He turned and looked at her, and Clary could tell that he was about to snap. She didn't really care though. The amount of detachment that she felt was surprising. It was as though she was almost numb.

"I figured that was obvious, Herondale," Clary snapped, turning to look at him. "I'm sitting."

"Get your ass into the bed," Jace growled at her.

"Remember when I told you that you couldn't boss me around?" Clary asked. "I was being serious!"

"I'm not going to ask nicely again," Jace informed her as he opened the closet door and pulled out a couple of blankets and threw them on the floor next to the pillow. "Get into the bed."

"Or what?" Clary asked wearily, looking at him with a shake of her head. "What could you possibly do to me that I haven't had done?" she asked.

"A lot," he replied as he took a step toward her. His movements reminded her of a predator, almost like a lion. She would be the gazelle that he was after; the only difference would be that she wasn't nearly as graceful. "Either get into that bed, Clary, or I'm going to throw you into the bed."

She glared at him and still didn't move. He wouldn't do that.

How wrong she was. He moved so quickly that he was almost a blur. He was next to her, his arms wrapping around her waist as he hauled her up. She kicked and thrashed around, trying to squirm out of his grip, but he held fast. The next thing she knew, she landed on the mattress with a bounce. She pushed herself up and leaned back against her hands to be met with a poisonous glare.

She didn't know why she was being so difficult now, but she had a feeling that it had something to do with the fact that he was being so mean and she didn't want to make _anything_ easy for him. She used her feet to propel her backward as she moved to get off the bed from the other side. Before she could reach the edge however, Jace grabbed her ankle and dragged her back toward him with an effortlessness that annoyed her. It wasn't fair that he was so much stronger! She looked at him for a moment and realized something else completely unfair…Jace was shirtless; how had she not noticed before? That made her all the more anxious to get out from under him because she was in _way_ more dangerous territory than she had originally thought.

"Let me go!" she snapped at him angrily.

"Then stay on the bed!" Jace retorted.

"No!" she exclaimed, attempting to kick him with her other foot. Sadly he moved at the last minute, and she passed his face by millimeters.

"You asked for it, Fray," Jace said darkly. Clary didn't even have time to ask him what he meant before he showed her. He pounced on her and grabbed her wrists to hold them over her head as he straddled her hips. She tried to fight him, to push him off, but he wouldn't budge.

"Why are you being so difficult about the bed?" Jace demanded angrily.

"Because you're a jerk!" Clary snapped. "Get off me!"

"I'm the jerk?" Jace said incredulously, ignoring her second exclamation. "What the hell, Fray? I didn't do anything to you!"

"I HATE YOU!" she screamed. "Dammit, Jace, are you happy now?"

She felt herself shaking as her eyes started prickling. She looked away from him, not wanting him to know that she was about to start crying.

"No," he said, his voice so calm and even that it actually caused her to back away from hysteria slightly. "I'm not happy, Clary. If you have to know, I'm actually miserable."

"Me too," she mumbled, turning to look at him again.

"Then why?" he asked, looking at her. There was a lost look in his golden eyes and Clary knew that he was as confused as her.

"You scare me," she said. She didn't know why she was spewing this now. She screamed at her mind to shut the hell up, but it was too late. "You're going to hurt me, Jace. I know you are."

"What?" Jace demanded, looking at her. His anger was slowly evaporating as uncertainty took its place. "Why would you say that, Clare? I wouldn't ever hurt you."

"Yes you would," Clary said. She turned to look at him and said, "You're the only person with a chance, so you would."

"Clary," Jace said, his voice coming out as barely a croak. "What did I do for you to believe that? Tell me so I can fix it, because I swear that I'm never going to hurt you. I don't think you realize exactly how much I just want to protect you."

"You don't get it," Clary said, feeling so frustrated because she couldn't find the right words to make him explain.

"Then make me understand!" Jace said exasperatedly. He looked at her with desperate eyes and Clary felt herself crumpling under his gaze. He had more of an effect on her than he had ever before because even though it had been a month since they'd so much as spoken a word to each other, she had watched him. He was a great person, even when he was acting like a child that had lost the privilege of their favorite toy. He was brave, smart, caring and funny.

"You're not like the others," Clary finally said, looking away from him. Part of her wished that he would move, if only because their proximity was making it hard for her to think. "I…I can be around them without feeling…" she trailed off, trying to make sure that she said the right thing.

"Feeling what, Clary?" he asked, looking at her almost concernedly. When she didn't say anything, Jace leaned a bit closer so that she could see all of the individual shades of gold in his irises. "Come on, Clary. Please talk to me."

"I feel an attachment starting to form," she said shakily. "It's scaring me because you're reckless and it's going to get you killed one of these days and it would just destroy me."

* * *

_**~Jace~**_

His head was beginning to throb by all the pure complications that came along with this girl. She had to be the most confusing person that he had ever met. "Look," he told her quietly. "I can't promise you that I won't die, but it isn't as though you can promise me that you're going to live to be an old lady either. I'm sure that you lost friends before in the beginning. It's a part of this world."

"You're not understanding," Clary said, looking at him almost desperately. He didn't know if she was pleading for him to get what she was trying to say, or for him to just leave it alone. The latter, he was not prepared to do under any circumstances.

"Then just say it," Jace said weakly. "Tell me how to fix this!"

"I've lost _friends_ before, Jace," Clary said. "You're not a friend. If I get closer and you died…" she trailed off, her cheeks turning an interesting shade of red and Jace felt like he'd been hit by a sledge hammer. He finally realized what she was trying to say.

She liked him.

She liked him _a lot _more than she liked the people that she'd actually been spending time with over the past month. She may have developed a friendship with his cousin and his friends, but that was because it wasn't friendship that she was afraid of.

She must have realized that he understood, because her cheeks became impossibly redder. "No," he said quietly with a small smile as he leaned down and rested his forehead against hers. "Don't be embarrassed. I'm the last person that you need to be embarrassed in front of, Clary."

She looked at him with wide eyes, though he didn't see any alarm in her expression, which was encouraging.

"I have to admit," he murmured, "that I really like the way that you blush, though. The red looks very nice on your skin." He leaned down a bit further and pressed his lips against her cheek, right over the red patch. "What can I do to make you flush?"

He pulled away so he could see her entire face again and smiled at the dumbfounded look on her face.

"Clary," he whispered. "I want to try something, but I don't want to freak you out. How much do you trust me?"

"I don't know," she managed to squeak. He smiled, a small laugh puffing through his nose at the way she sounded so unsure.

"How about this," Jace said with a smile. "If you feel uncomfortable, just tell me to stop."

She nodded slowly, and Jace felt a grin come to his face that he couldn't fight down. He leaned forward, so that their noses brushed lightly. She inhaled shakily and he paused to look at her. When she didn't say anything, he leaned in further so that his lips were barely touching hers. He didn't want to scare her off, and he figured going slow was the only way to ensure that he didn't. It was driving him crazy, though. His heart was pounding so hard that his head was spinning and he was pretty sure that it was just her proximity to him that was doing it. How he had managed to stay away from her for as long as he did was still a mystery to him.

Clary didn't move as he sat there with their lips connected. He didn't know if that was a good sign or not. She wasn't telling him to stop, but it wasn't as though she was encouraging him to continue either. He pulled back, figuring that he was pushing his luck, and he didn't want to with how fragile things with Clary seemed to be.

Clary looked at him, biting her lower lip. Jace's eyes traveled downward, seeing the movement and immediately looking away. There was no way that someone's mouth was supposed to be so enticing. Hers was though. She was tormenting him and she probably had no idea.

Suddenly her expression changed. There was a fire blazing in her eyes that he hadn't really seen before and it worried him slightly. "Let go of my hands," she said. Her voice wasn't exactly the warmest and Jace felt most of his hope leave him as he resignedly released her wrists from his grip. He was about to move to get off her when she moved her arms forward in a blur and wrapped them around his neck as she sat back up. Their lips collided forcefully as they fell back on to the bed in a tangle of flailing limbs.

Jace was too shocked to do anything but catch himself before all of his weight landed on Clary, who didn't seem too worried about anything other than his lips, which she was practically devouring despite the fact that Jace was pretty well unresponsive.

"Something wrong?" Clary asked as she broke away, breathing heavily. She loosened her hold on him, as though she was unsure of whether or not he wanted to be with her.

That move alone brought Jace out of his shock. He grinned at her and said, "Nothing at all," as he leaned back down and eliminated the space between them.

Clary's lips were incredibly soft despite the fact that they were chapped and cracked in some places. Her hands were calloused, but they glided across his back so smoothly that he could barely tell. Every time he felt her fingertips trace a scar, his body shivered almost uncontrollably. She smiled against his lips at this, as though she thought it was funny. He would teach her soon enough that there was nothing funny about kissing him.

He leaned down closer so that their chests were pushed tightly against each other and used his forearms to brace himself so that she wasn't completely crushed by him. He wanted to groan as her hands moved from his back to his stomach, tracing out the individual muscles in his stomach. He could tell just by how much attention she was paying to each one, that she liked them all very much. The thought made him grin.

She broke the kiss when she had to breathe, but Jace wasn't ready to take a break. He'd been suffering for over a month because of this girl, and he wasn't about to stop now. His lips brushed over her jaw bone, and he noticed with a delighted grin that she turned her head to the side to give him a bit more access to her skin. He peppered kisses all the way to her ear and whispered, "You're so beautiful," to her before he continued to trail a line of kisses down the length of her neck, silently thanking God for who ever invented tank-tops.

* * *

_**~Tessa~**_

The fact that a huge and admittedly intimidating truck was Will's _baby_ disturbed her. She had to use the step to get inside the cab and she was a pretty tall girl. Will didn't have a problem getting inside, much to Tessa's annoyance. As he looked at the interior, a love struck look crossed her face and she was admittedly disgusted.

As he ran his hands almost reverently over the dashboard, Tessa was ready to hurl. She could now see why Jonathan hadn't wanted to tag along. At the moment, she was questioning her own sanity for volunteering. Will looked over at her with a smile and said, "I think the inside is ready to go. We need to get her loaded up with some a bag of food and water. We're bringing a first aid kit with us this time, so we'll be prepared for everything."

"Something tells me that you don't really believe that you can be prepared for everything," Tessa said with a small smile. Will jumped out of the truck and walked around to the other side. Tessa watched him, not bothering to get out herself.

He leaned against her open doorway and smirked at her, "I believe in improvisation, but you, on the other hand, don't. I want to make sure that you're comfortable with coming along. Can you think of anything other than a first aid kit that you think we should bring?"

"Aren't you supposed to be the expert?" Tessa asked teasingly.

"Tell Jace that," Will said with a roll of his eyes, "he seems to think that he is."

This caused Tessa to laugh lightly. The two cousin's constant bantering was something that she didn't think she would ever get tired of hearing.

Will smiled at her and said, "I'm serious, though, Tess. I want you to feel comfortable and I normally improvise when we need something out on the road. So tell me what else you and Clary normally have with you when you're traveling."

She felt her stomach twist slightly at his words. She liked it when he called her Tess. It was as though, it was his special nickname for her. It took her a moment to actually compose her thoughts and tell Will what she was thinking. He seemed to be okay with it, however, and just waited patiently for her to begin.

"It's starting to get cold," she finally said. "We might need a few blankets and a couple of extra jackets if we can spare them. As long as we have enough food and water to sustain us and enough gas to keep us going, we should be okay."

"We're not taking any fuel," Will told her. "There're bound to be some gas stations on the way and we're going to get some from there. We're taking gas cans to make sure that we can bring back some extra fuel with us."

Tessa nodded at this. It made sense. "Okay," she said with a small smile.

Will placed his hand on her lap, a bold move that he hadn't tried before as he looked up at her with a small smile. "Is there anything else? Anything at all?"

Tessa quickly glanced down at his hand, trying to ignore the butterflies that were wreaking havoc in her stomach as she looked back over at him and said, "Is there any way that Church can come with us?"

Will grinned and said, "Of course, love."

* * *

They made it back to the boys' suite a little while later. Tessa's jacket wasn't nearly warm enough, much to her displeasure, and as soon as she made it inside, she quickly snatched up the blanket that was sitting on the sofa and wrapped in around her shoulders. "If you would have told me that you were cold, I would have given you my jacket," Will told her disapprovingly.

"I know," Tessa said with a small shrug. "Then you would have been cold."

"But being the chivalrous gentleman that I am, I would have suffered the cold for a fair lady such as yourself," Will informed her with a smirk.

Tessa rolled her eyes at that. Will was hopeless sometimes. She just wrapped the blanket more firmly around herself. He grinned at her before walking forward and saying, "I would be honored to share some of my body heat with you, if you would allow it."

Tessa considered it, looking at him. His eyes were wide and hopeful and something in his expression told her that he wouldn't press her if she said no. That might have been what caused her to nod and walk over to the couch. "Come on, then, William, if you insist."

"And I do," he replied as he followed her. She opened the side of the blanket up. He motioned for her to wait as he unzipped his leather jacket and shrugged it off. He then slid underneath. Tessa got the same idea and shrugged her own jacket off. Once she threw it out from under the blanket, she brought the blanket back over her and was able to appreciate the heat that Will seemed to project.

They sat in a companionable silence for a few minutes before something hit Tessa like a brick wall…it was the silence. "Will," she said, turning and looking at him.

"Hm?" he asked absently. His eyes were closed as his head leaned against the back of the couch. Clearly he had been about to doze off when she'd woke him up. She'd feel bad about that later.

"It's so quiet," she said.

"So?" he asked, turning to look at her. "What's wrong with that?"

"We're in your suite, right?"she asked.

Will nodded.

"Jace and Clary are in Jace's room in your suite, right?" she kept going, hoping that he would come to the same conclusion.

He blinked and nodded. It took him a moment, but his eyes widened and he said, "Do you mind if I get up for a few minutes?"

"What are you going to do?" Tessa demanded.

"Check on them," he replied innocently. "I want to make sure that they haven't murdered one another. I would feel bad if you lost Clary."

Tessa snorted at the fact that he completely left Jace out of that and just nodded her head for him to get up. Will moved the blanket so that no cold air hit her when he got to his feet. She turned and watched him go behind the couch to Jace's door. He balled his hand up into a fist and slammed the side of it against the wood repeatedly. "You still alive in there, little cousin?"

"Piss off, Will, or I swear I'll kill you!" Jace's voice snapped very audibly a moment later.

"Sorry, Jace," Will said, not really sounding sorry at all. "If you two are finished making up, or whatever it is that you're doing, we really need to sit down and talk."

"We're not done!" Jace snapped. "Now go away!"

"I'm about to come in," Will said. "We have a job to do and you're a part of it."

Will looked over at the dresser, as though dreading what he was about to do. He put his back to it and grunted as he pushed backward with what seemed to be just about all of his strength. The dresser moved slowly, inch by inch. Tessa watched with wide eyes and moved to get up and help.

"No," Will said in a strained voice, "I've got it. You just stay there and be warm."

Tessa rolled her eyes and stood up, dropping the blanket. She was warmed up anyway. The cooler air hit her and she shivered, but didn't let it stop her as she walked over and put her hands on the dresser and started helping Will push. It took a few moments, but the dresser eventually began to move, sliding more easily with two of them instead of just one.

"What's in that thing?" Tessa demanded wearily, looking at it after they had pushed it against the wall beside Jace's room. She wiped some sweat off her forehead before looking over at Will.

"A few spare bricks that we found in the basement," Will replied with a shrug. "We figured that the heavier it was the better."

"No kidding," Tessa muttered.

Will walked over and knocked on the door again. "Jace," he called. "Let's go!"

The doorknob turned a moment later and the hinges creaked slightly as the door slowly opened. Jace was standing in the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest as he looked at Will with the most hateful scowl that Tessa had ever seen on his face. A moment later the blond swung, and his fist landed on his cousin's jaw, causing Will to stumble back a few steps. Before he could do anything else, however, Tessa moved between them hastily, putting her hands out in either direction.

"Jace," she said sternly, "you need to calm down, okay?"

Jace's jaw was stiffened as he looked past Tessa, at Will, before looking back at her. "I know," he said after a few moments of silence. "I'm calm. Now tell me where your brother is so I can go and do the same to him."

"Later," Tessa said. "We really do need to talk right now. Where's Clary?"

"Inside," Jace replied, stepping out of the doorway with his arms crossed. Tessa walked into his room and saw Clary was standing next to the bed, looking more than a little disheveled.

"Are you okay?" Tessa asked, she looked at Clary with a small frown.

Clary shrugged and gave her sister a weak smile. "I'm fine," she replied. "What job do we have? Or is it just Jace?"

"It's all of us," Tessa replied. "We're going on a raid."

* * *

_**~Will~**_

Jonathan seemed to have amazing timing. He walked in at the same time that Tessa and Clary walked out of the room. Jace wasted no time, walking up and punching him in the face as hard as he could. Jon reeled back in surprise and hit the door.

Will probably would have reprimanded his cousin if he didn't think that they deserved it. They forced Jace and Clary into the room together, but if it stopped all of the pointless moping around, then he was okay with sporting a bruising jaw to match the one that Jon was bound to have in the morning.

"Have you told them about the job yet?" Jon asked wearily, rubbing his jaw as Jace backed away from him. He slowly walked toward the arm chair and sat down. Will fought back a laugh as he took his seat next to Tessa again. Clary sat on his other side while Jace took the office chair.

"Yeah," Jace said gruffly. He still sounded angry, though Will was certain that he would live. "Where are we going?" Clary asked.

"There's a town that we haven't hit yet called Idris," Will said. "That's what Luke has written on the top of the list." He handed her the list of supplies, which she took silently. "Luke wants me and Jace to teach you guys how to do a raid properly."

"You mean not what you did the day you found us?" Clary quipped.

Will turned and looked at her with a raised eyebrow, as did everyone else. It was the first real joke that she had made in quite a while. She looked at him, and then seemed to realize that everyone was looking at her.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing," Will said quickly before he looked away with a grin. He loved it when he was right.

* * *

**I don't know if I'm going to be able to keep up with these quick updates. They're really time-consuming and this is a lot to write. I'm going to probably have to end up updating on a scheduled time again. I'll have to figure all of that out again, though.**

**I know that Will's POV was cut short, but there wasn't a whole lot to put in and I didn't want to drag anything out unnecessarily. It would have just gotten boring. I figure a chapter over five thousand words should be enough to sustain you. I loved all of your reviews! They all made me so happy to read, and the feedback was incredible. As for the Jace/Clary scene, it was not supposed to happen that way, but so many of you wanted it that I figured **_**what the heck!**_** I've never written anything that gushy, so I hope that I did a good job, you guys can be the judges of that.**

**The next chapter is the beginning of the raid and the entire story starts picking up from here. What do you think is going to happen? Do you think they're going to have smooth sailing? Will they all make it back alive? Will they make it back at all? And what about Alec, Magnus, Izzy, Simon and Sebastian? What do you think has happened to them?**

**Thanks for reading!**


	11. Never get Kidnapped

**Okay, so I know that all of you probably hate me, but just hear me out…I'm enrolled in college now and lemme tell you, it's not exactly all fun and games, especially for a lowly biology major like me. I've had no time to write this, because I've been writing papers, and when I've had breaks, I'm not going to lie, I slept and relaxed. I've been receiving everyone's reviews, follows and favorites, and I've read them all. Thank you all so much for your continued support, even though I don't deserve it. I'm still ridiculously busy, but I figured that I needed to write something to show my appreciation and to let you all know that I'm not dead. So here we are…chapter eleven! I hope that it makes up for a little bit of the wait that I've put you through.**

* * *

_**Chapter Eleven: Never get Kidnapped**_

* * *

_**~Clary~  
**_

Everyone had been sitting in a companionable silence for over an hour as Will drove the truck farther and farther away from the hotel safe-haven. Tessa was riding shotgun, and Will was instructing her on how to properly multitask. She was reading a map, giving directions and scolding him when he was stupid, which was a bonus, like a pro. Clary was in the backseat, wedged in between Jace, who was sitting behind his cousin, and Jonathan, who was behind Tessa.

Clary had stopped noticing the stragglers within the first hour of the walk; they just blurred by now, going unnoticed in her boredom. She yawned and leaned over so that her head was resting against Jon's bicep. Without another word, she closed her eyes, fully intent on taking a nice nap.

Of course, that was when Will slammed on the breaks and turned. Clary's eyes snapped open as she jolted forward. Before she could get whiplash, however, she had two strong arms wrapped around her, pushing her back into her seat. Both Jace and Jon had thought to reach out and catch her. She gave both of them a grateful smile, before turning to see what Will could have possibly stopped for.

They were on a small side road now, moving slowly through the wooded area. Clary could feel the apprehension in the car and couldn't help but share in the unease. This place didn't look safe with dense trees on either side of the dilapidated road. Anything could be moving through that wilderness, watching them and waiting for them to stop so that it could pounce.

Clary shook off her apprehension. She was being silly. It just looked creepy. There was nothing out there. Zombies would have already shown their faces, because they didn't have a brain to tell them to hide and wait for their food.

"Well, Tess," Will said with a small sigh as they came to a break in the trees. "You weren't wrong."

There was a small gas station nestled in gap in the forest, but Clary could see where nature was trying to take the land back. Small trees were growing everywhere, the pavement was cracked, and sapling and weeds were sprouting through the gaps.

"You guys want to stop here?" Jon asked incredulously.

"Why not?" Jace asked. He was looking through the windshield as they turned into the tattered parking lot. "This is what we have to work with now. All of the welcoming and friendly stores have already been raided and are now overrun with stragglers. These ones never get touched, because people always assume that they're deathtraps.

"Did you ever think that it was for good reason?" Clary questioned.

Jace smirked down at her and said, "Yeah. Don't worry, though, if you get into trouble, Red, I'll protect you."

"Last time I checked," Will quipped from up front, "it was you that needed protecting."

Jace turned to cast an annoyed glace at the front. "Yeah," he said, "well your—"

"Shut up," Tessa said impatiently. She turned and looked in between Jace and Will with a small frown. "This is serious. We all need to be careful."

"You heard the woman, Jacie," Will said smartly. "We need to be serious."

Clary could already tell that the cousins being serious was impossible. She wasn't expecting miracles. Will turned off the engine and opened his door. Jace, Jon and Tessa followed his example and they all jumped out at nearly the same time. Clary, of course, had to awkwardly follow afterward. She sighed in relief as her feet finally hit the ground. It had been cramped sitting in between two buff guys.

"Okay," Will said. "Jon and Jace, go to the back and see if there's any stragglers that I don't know about. Clary, stay out front and next to the gas pumps, be ready to fill up the fuel cans. Tess. Come with me; we're going inside to see what we can find.

Everyone nodded and Clary watched them walk off to do their different duties. Clary felt a bit of resentment due to the fact that they were keeping her back, away from the danger, because she was the youngest. She figured that throwing a temper tantrum would just confirm for them that she wasn't ready to go out on raids, so she dealt with it. She would suck it up and so what she was told until they felt better about sending her out. She rolled her eyes. Being the youngest was so fun.

She sighed as she jumped up on to the back of the truck, standing on the tailgate. She leaned down and grabbed two of the cans and jumped back down with them. She walked over to the nearest gas pump and sat them down. She walked back over to the truck to grab a couple more when she heard the sound of Jon and Jace fighting in the still air.

She bit on her lower lip uncertainly. Part of her wanted to go and help them, but then another part of her knew that she had a job to do. If she wanted to be trusted to go out on more raids, she would have to trust her friends to be able to take care of themselves. She inhaled deeply as she gave herself a mental pep-talk. She put her hands on the tailgate of the truck, prepared to push herself back on it, when she heard a stick snapping and trees rustling. She froze and turned toward the noise.

She had sworn it had come from the section of forest closest to the truck. She rolled her eyes and shook her head. It was just her paranoia messing with her; she would be fine. She tensed up again and vaulted herself back into the bed of the truck.

_Snap!_

She froze and turned to look back at where she had originally heard the noise. There was no way that she had hallucinated twice. She turned around and grabbed two more gas cans. She knew that there was someone, or something out there. Whatever it was, Clary didn't want it to know that she knew about it in case it was hostile.

"You're good!" Will called from inside of the station, sounding a little out of breath. He'd probably had a few stragglers to take care of before he was able to attend to the gas.

Clary didn't say anything in return. She just grabbed the nozzle and turned to the gas container. She hummed lightly to herself, trying to keep calm despite the fact that her nerves were on end. "Well, well, well, Clarissa," a cold voice said. "You've gotten big, haven't you?"

Clary stiffened up, unable to believe what she was hearing. "What the hell?" she muttered to herself as she slowly turned around to get a good look at who had been watching her from the forest.

* * *

_**~Jace~**_

Jace and Jon walked away from the others cheerfully. Jon even grinned his way as they turned the corner and headed to the back of the store. The older man's cheerful demeanor abruptly changed when they were out of sight of the others. It wasn't as though he was angry; he looked more annoyed than anything else. He sighed as he looked over at Jace and shook his head.

"We need to talk, Jace," Jon said.

Jace didn't like his tone. "What's there to talk about, Jon?" he questioned.

"What do you think?" Jon inquired. "I'm Clary's older brother. I have certain duties that I must attend to, regardless of how much I don't want to."

"What duties?" Jace asked. "If you're going to try to kick my—"

"Don't be ridiculous," Jon said. "As the older brother, it is my duty to _threaten _to kick your ass unless I deem you completely unworthy; if that was the case, I would kick your ass immediately and leave you for the incoming stragglers."

And there were incoming zombies. There was only a handful of them, and they were a good twenty feet off, but it didn't mean that they weren't supposed to be eliminating a threat. "Have I ever told you that you choose the worst time to do your duties?" Jace asked him, as he pulled out his knives from their sheathes and got ready to charge the incoming target.

"I'm aware," Jon replied as he pulled out his own blade. "It doesn't matter, though, as long as I get the point across." They both started walking toward the undead, and when Jon got to the first one, he dodged out of the way of a clumsy swinging hand and said, "Clary seems to like you a lot, God only knows why, but she does."

Jace didn't say anything as he kicked the rotting leg of one of the corpses and felt the weakened bone snap. The zombie fell to the ground and Jace slammed one of his knives into the undead's head and yanked it back out. The body, an old lady, fell to the ground.

"I thought that I would point out," Jon said as Jace decapitated a teenage zombie, "that if you're able to find someone that is able to look past your narcissism, you should probably keep them."

Jace rolled his eyes as he outmaneuvered another zombie and spun around bringing his foot high enough into the air to kick the man in his temple. It crumpled to the ground. "Can you please just get to the damned point?" Jace snapped impatiently, as he got to the next zombie. It had its hands out, desperate to get a hold of him, but Jace grabbed it by the neck and rammed his knife into the corpses forehead.

"Yeah," Jon said. "If you ever hurt her, I'll kill you."

Jace sighed and turned to look at him. "Now was that so hard to get out?" he demanded.

"I had an entire speech in my head planned," Jonathan grumbled. "The least that you could have done was let me get finished with it."

Jace smirked at him and said, "Sorry, Jonny, we don't have time for that." He adopted a more serious look on his face as he turned to fully face Clary's brother. "I like her, man. I really do. I have no intention of letting anyone, let alone me, hurt her as long as I'm around."

"Good," Jon said. "I just got my sister back, and I want her to stay around for as long as possible." He was silent for a moment before a small grin spread across his face. "Don't tell her I said that, though. She'll never let me forget it if you do."

"Noted," Jace said with a grin.

"We probably need to start searching…" Jon trailed off as Tessa's shout rang through the air.

"What the hell's going on?" she practically shrieked. "Clary!"

Jace blinked, unsure of what to do. He felt dread pooling around in the pit of his stomach. Without another word, the two of them dashed back to the front, Jonathan keeping pace with him without a problem.

"What's wrong with Clary?" Jace demanded before he had even cleared the side of the station.

When he got to the front, he saw the strangest sight ever. Will had Tessa tangled in his arms, restraining her as she tried to run toward the edge of the parking lot, toward the forest.

"Help me," Will snapped, not answering Jace's question. "Tessa, you have to calm down, or there's nothing that we can do!"

Tessa didn't seem to be listening to him. She squirmed harder, shrieking at him to let her go as she fought. Jace and Jon both ran toward them and Jonathan paused beside Jon, trying to restrain Tessa. Jace, on the other hand, looked around the lot.

"Where's Clary?" Jace demanded quietly. He turned around to look at the pair that had been at the front with her.

When neither of them answered, Jace asked again, yelling this time. "Where the hell is Clary?" he roared.

"He just came," Will said faintly. "He came and took her. I don't know who, or what…." That was when Tessa stopped fighting and broke down. She turned around and pounced on Will, wrapping her arms around his neck as she started sobbing into his chest.

Will looked over her sobbing form and Jace questioningly as he embraced her uncertainly. Jace probably would have found this entertaining any other time. "Who took my sister?" Jonathan asked.

"He looked a lot like you," Will said. "Same blond hair and same build. He was out of my sight before I could get a better look at him, but—"

"What way did he go?" Jon cut him off.

Will pointed in the direction that Tessa had been trying to dive into moments before. Jace didn't wait for approval, or for permission. He turned around and dashed into the forest. He heard his cousin cursing at him to stop and to get back, but he didn't pay them any attention. He owed Clary his life, and he would be damned if he was going to wait around to make a plan to save her while she was getting farther and farther away. She deserved better than that from him.

* * *

_**~Tessa~**_

Nothing prepared her for the gut wrenching pain that losing Clary brought on her. Sure, losing Jonathan both times had hurt so badly that she couldn't breathe, but this was different. She had been taking care of and looking after Clary so much over the past three years, that it felt more like she was losing a daughter.

Will had been the closest person when she had finally lost her composure. She hadn't intended on freaking out and sobbing all over him like an idiot, but she hadn't been able to hold it in any longer. Will hugged her tightly, not letting her go, like she had been afraid that he would. "We're going to get her back," he assured her quietly. "Go after Jace. Make sure that he doesn't get himself killed. Get your sister back from that prick."

She heard the sound of rushing footsteps a moment later, and then Will started rubbing her back. It was so soothing that she felt herself calming slightly. "It's okay, Tessa," Will murmured to her. "Clary's in good hands. They'll get her back."

Tessa nodded shakily and Will pulled back from her just enough to see her face. He smiled at her weakly as he brought one of his hands up from her waist and brushed his thumb over her cheek. "We're going to get her back." He leaned forward and pressed his lips against her forehead gently, in a soothing gesture. Tessa closed her eyes, allowing herself to take comfort from the contact.

He pulled back again and quietly asked, "Who was it that you saw?" Will asked. "Who took her?"

Tessa remembered looking out of the broken window frame and seeing Jonathan's clone standing next to Clary, a handgun pointed directly at her chest. She inhaled shakily and exhaled slowly. "My dad," she whispered.

* * *

**Fair warning with all of this…I'm very rusty. It's been a while since I've written anything for TMI, so I hope that I didn't screw this up too badly. I hope that you liked it and I'm hopefully going to start the next chapter soon. I know that I left off Will's POV, but I wanted to go ahead and put this out before I go to sleep, so I won't forget to do it later. Will's POV will be extra-long in the next chapter. It's good to be baaaack! **


	12. Never Follow Bad Guys Blindly

**I just wanted to thank you guys for accepting the fact that I took such a long break and forgiving me for it. I'm glad to be back and I'm happy that you're all glad to see me back. Here's another chapter for you, and I'm still trying to get back into the routine of all of this, so I'm sorry if it seems abrupt and choppy. Thank you for all of the view, reviews, favs and follows. You're all the best!**

* * *

_**Chapter Twelve: Never Follow Bad Guys Blindly**_

* * *

_**~Clary~**_

Being led through the forest at gunpoint was enough to ruin her day, but the fact that it was her father that was instigating the forced march made it so much worse. How was he still alive? Clary had witnessed his death herself…but then again, Jonathan had insisted that he had seen their dad after he was supposed to be dead.

She was pulled out of her ponderings as she passed through a clearing. Deciding that she'd had enough with being pushed around by this asshole, she stopped in the too-long grass and turned around to look at her 'father'.

Valentine looked pretty good…a lot better than anyone had a right to with the way that the world had turned out. "Why are you stopping?" Valentine asked.

"I want to know what's going on," Clary snapped. "Why the hell are you pointing a gun at me? What's going on?"

Valentine just smiled at her and said, "You don't need to know that. It's not necessary for what I have planned."

"What would that be?" Clary demanded.

"Nice try," he said before he made a swishing motion with his hands, indicating for her to turn around. When Clary didn't, her father's smile slowly died and an impatient frown took its place. "Turn around, Clarissa, now. We have a lot of ground to cover before nightfall."

"You're not going anywhere," a new voice snarled.

Clary jumped and turned to her left. Jace's silhouette was standing at the edge of the clearing. He was leaning against a thick pine tree as though he didn't have a care in the world. His arms were crossed over his large chest and his blades were sheathed on his sides.

"You look familiar," Valentine told Jace calmly, as he turned to get a good look at his intruder. "Would you happen to be related to the Herondales?"

Clary blinked confusedly and looked at Jace, who took a slow step forward into the clearing. "How do you know my family?" Jace questioned.

"You're Stephen Herondale's son," Valentine said, nodding his head. "Jonathan. I knew your father very well. He was a close and valuable friend of mine. My name is Valentine Fray, perhaps he mentioned" Valentine shook his head sadly, "It was a shame that he and your mother died."

"I didn't think that you made it out," he said, shaking his head. "I'm getting good news all over the place, aren't I?" He smiled and said, "Unless you would like Clary to die prematurely, you will follow me and not give me any trouble."

"You would do that to your own daughter?" Jace asked incredulously. His golden eyes were lit up in contempt and hate.

"I would for the sake of the world," Valentine answered easily. "Now let's go." He nodded his head, gesturing for Jace to move forward. When Jace didn't make an attempt, Valentine nodded his head. "Fine."

There was a loud _boom_ and a burning pain in her shoulder. She crumpled to the ground, and an involuntary scream tore from her throat.

* * *

_**~Jace~**_

He dashed forward, nearly tripping over a root of a nearby tree as he tried to get to Clary. She was in the fetal position, inhaling and exhaling shakily as she tried to keep herself together. He knelt down and gently pushed her hand away from her shoulder so that he could look more closely at the freely bleeding wound. The bullet had torn through the muscle in her arm, but it had found its way out of her body. Thankfully, it just seemed to be a flesh wound. He pulled his jacket off and pulled out a small pocket knife. He cut the sleeve off and wrapped it around her arm, wincing as she whimpered from the pain of having to move her arm. Once it was bound, he tied it off and turned to look at Valentine, who was apparently watching them.

"Interesting," Valentine murmured. The way that he was talking made Jace think that Valentine wasn't interested in anything that was going to benefit him or Clary.

"I should slit your throat for that," Jace hissed at him hatefully.

"But you won't because I'm the one with the gun," Valentine said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world…though Jace would admit that it was. "I didn't hit her in any spots that are immediately life threatening. I was trying to make a point, and I think I made it very well."

Jace was certain that the only point that Valentine had made was that he was crazy, and he really had made that quite well.

"Get up and do as I say, and we'll fix Clary up when we get to where we're going," Valentine instructed. Jace marveled at how calm the man was. It was as though he was talking to a couple of annoying children that had screwed something up. Clearly, there would be no reasoning with him.

"Alright, Clary," he murmured to her. Hopefully she heard him past her whimpering. "I know it hurts, but we have to move."

She twisted, as though she was about to try and get up, and cried out in pain again. Jace winced at the noise, suddenly wishing that he had been the one to be shot. He would rather take the pain than hear her going through it; it would hurt less.

"I'm going to help you up," Jace said. "Do yourself a favor and try not to move too much."

She nodded curtly and Jace wrapped his arm under her waist and slid it up until he was cradling her side. He carefully pulled her up sideways, being sure to cradle her into his front. "It's okay, Clary," he said quietly. He wrapped his other arm around her once he was certain that she was okay. He pressed her more firmly to his front and stood up, bringing her with him, slowly.

"Good boy," Valentine said, making it sound as though Jace was a dog. "Now let's go."

Jace wanted nothing more than to tell Valentine exactly what he thought about going anywhere with him, but he knew better than to let his big mouth get the better of him in this situation. It would get Clary killed.

"Come on," Valentine said. "Don't make me ask you again, Herondale. It won't be nice if I do."

Jace nodded curtly and let go of Clary. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and began walking, pulling her with him. "Let's go," he whispered.

She nodded and leaned against him, a small sniffle coming out of her as she complied. "Everything's going to be okay," Jace assured her quietly, ignoring the way that Valentine chuckled behind him, as though he found his reassurances amusing and untrue.

"We'll see about that," he said. "Be good and I won't punish you."

The guy really sounded like a nutcase. Valentine was as crazy as the people that were in the colony pegged Jace for being. Jace didn't really know how to fight with crazy people. He fought the mindless undead. He looked down at Clary as he silently wondered what he was going to have to do to get both of them out of this safely.

* * *

_**~Tessa~**_

Pulling herself together was no easy task, but she knew that her sister needed her, and she wouldn't be able to do anything to help Clary unless she was in her right mind. She looked up at Will, who was still holding her gently. She realized that the look that was twisted on his handsome face was uncertainty. Tessa hadn't thought that he was probably unused to comforting people.

"I'm sorry," she said, her cheeks heating up from embarrassment.

"Don't be," Will said. "Some asshole has your sister. We're going to get her back, though. Are you okay enough to continue?"

"Yeah," Tessa said.

Will let her go and gave her a weak smile. "You're sure?" he asked.

"I'm sure, William," she said.

"Then let's go, my lady," he said, gesturing toward the forest. "We have a bastard to catch."

Tessa nodded, knowing that Will was right. She was more than a little confused and disoriented. She had no idea what was actually going on, but what she did know was that her sister was taken away at gunpoint. She would figure out what her dad had to do with all of it _after_ she got Clary back.

"Let's go," she said in agreement. She ran into the forest with Will closely following her.

It was obvious where Jon and Jace had gone, because the small trees that were on the forest floor were broken, bent and mangled. Tessa followed the path. Will came up beside her and grabbed her hand from her side. "In case something goes wrong," Will told her.

Tessa gave him a weak smile, but she didn't say anything as a form of a reply.

BOOM!

Tessa froze at that noise and turned around to look at Will with wide eyes. That sounded a lot like a gunshot, and there was only one person that Tessa recalled having one of those…and he had Clary. Throwing all caution aside, she took off, letting Will's hand go as she dodged around trees, ducked under branches and jumped over roots. She heard the sound of twigs breaking a couple of times, and figured that they had drawn the attention of a few stragglers, but she couldn't bring herself to care.

She saw that the trees were beginning to thin out, and felt herself become hopeful. Just as she was coming up to the clearing, the ground collapsed from under her feet. She felt herself falling, and a couple of heartbeats later, when she hit the earth, the breath was knocked out of her lungs and her vision went black.

* * *

_**~Will~**_

He was beside Tessa one moment, and the next she was gone. He heard a small and quick scream tear from her lips, but it was cut off quickly. He skidded to a stop and looked around frantically. It wasn't hard to locate the huge hole that was in the middle of the forest floor. Someone had concealed it with a bunch of flimsy branches, and when Tessa had stepped on it, they must have broken.

He dashed back to it and dropped to his knees as he looked down. There was a deep and large rectangular hole, and he could see Tessa's silhouette at the bottom of it. She wasn't moving, much to his concern. Knowing that he couldn't just leave her, he sighed and vaulted himself inside. He landed in a cat-like position next to her and as soon as he got his bearings straight, he lowered himself completely and knelt beside her.

He placed his two fingers against her pulse point and sighed in relief as he felt her blood rushing strongly underneath her thin patch of skin. Okay, he sighed; at least she was alive. He grabbed the small flashlight that he'd brought with him inside of the store and turned it on. "Damn it," he sighed as he looked around. They were in a hole…that was it, just a deep hole. How were they supposed to get out?

He would figure all of that out in a few minutes. At the moment, the only thing that he let himself think about was how they were out of immediate danger. He looked back down at Tessa and allowed the light to run over her body. He couldn't get a very good idea of how badly she was hurt, but considering the fact that he didn't see any blood, and none of her limbs were sitting at odd angles, he was confident in the fact that she wasn't about to die.

"Okay," Will sighed. What was he supposed to do now? He shrugged to himself and plopped down on to the floor and allowed his back to lean against the dirt wall. He settled his eyes on Tessa as he propped his arms on his raised knees. It would be a while, he was sure, before they got out.

It was over an hour after Tessa fell that she woke up. She groaned, sounding a lot more like a zombie than a human, and for a moment Will was terrified that she had been bitten somewhere and had turned into one of the walking dead. That was until he heard Clary's name pass through her lips.

He sighed in relief as he scrambled to his feet. Terror was no longer freezing him up, and he felt freer. He knelt down beside her and murmured, "How is your head?"

Tessa turned so that she was looking at him. Will could tell by her slow reaction that it took her a moment to focus her vision enough to tell who was talking to her. As soon as she did, however, she smiled weakly and said, "It hurts pretty bad."

Will didn't doubt it. "Well don't get up right now," he said. "We're stuck here until someone finds us and finds a way to get us out."

"No stragglers have come around?" Tessa questioned.

Will blinked and looked up. That was a really good question. No Zombies had found them…hopefully their luck would hold up. Then again, Will had a feeling that something had been planned about everything, which meant that if no zombies came around, there would be a reason behind it. "No," he said. "None have." He placed a hand on her shoulder and said, "Just rest and relax. Hopefully someone will be back soon."

Much to Will's surprise, she complied. Maybe she had hit her head too hard, after all.

After what felt like forever, footsteps finally started moving their way. They were quick and frantic. Will was afraid that whoever it was would just leave them there. He had no idea if they were friend or foe, but he knew that he had to risk it. If not, they could be down there forever.

He cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, "HEY! We're in here!"

The footsteps faltered to a stop before they picked back up again. They got progressively louder until Will saw the large form of Jon looming over it. "What the hell?" Jon asked stupidly. "What's going on?"

"Oh, you know," Will said impatiently. "We decided to play hide and seek. What the hell does it look like? It was a trap and Tess fell inside. Can you find something to pull us out with?"

"I think we packed some rope on the truck," Jon said. "I'll get it out, but I need to tell you something first."

That was the first time that Will noticed Jon's face. He looked grief-stricken, as though he was only moments from losing all forms of composure and going completely crazy. "What?" he asked.

"Jace and Clary are both gone. My dad took them away in a white van."

He heard a thump beside him, and when he looked, he saw that Tessa had fallen. He quickly knelt down and looked her over. Her eyes were closed and she was completely limp. Her chest was rising and falling, thankfully.

"What the hell just happened?" Jon asked worriedly.

"I think she fainted," Will said. He looked up at Jon and said, "Go and get the rope; there's nothing that we can do while Tessa and I are down here."

* * *

**Well, here is the next chapter. I know that they are really short, but I don't have time to write longer ones and post them as often. I figured that these might be better. So…what do you think Valentine has in mind for his daughter? How did he know the Herondales? Do you think that Jon and the others will be able to get them back? Tune in next time to get more information and in the meantime, let me know what you think.**


	13. Never Fall Asleep

**I screwed up on the last chapter...sorry! Tessa was supposed to faint, and somehow that part didn't get saved in the document. I fixed it, though, so at the end of the last chapter Tessa fainted and that was why Will was carrying her.  
**

_**Chapter Thirteen: Never Fall Asleep**_

* * *

_**~Clary~**_

She was in so much pain as Valentine drove that most of the trip went by in nothing more than a haze. Every time that they would pass over a bump, an involuntary yelp would come out of her mouth. They were both in the back of the van. Jace was sitting next to her. His hands were bound behind his back with handcuffs as a special precaution. Jace was fairly talented at escaping impossible situations, after all.

He looked at her concernedly, and it was obvious that he wanted to be able to hold her more than anything else. "Just lean against me," he told her quietly. "Please try and sleep some so you won't feel your shoulders."

Clary knew that he was probably more agitated than she was and she didn't want to make his anxiety any worse than it already was, so she complied and rested her head against his shoulder. She closed her eyes and prayed for some sort of relief, whether in the form of oblivion or something else.

It took her a half an hour and tightly sealed lips, but eventually she fell asleep.

She woke up to someone nudging her side. She yawned and tried to stretch, but winced and stopped when her arm started throbbing. "Come on," Jace whispered to her. "We're here."

She nodded slowly and straightened up so that he could move. He scooted toward the back of the van, where both doors were open. Dim light was shining inside, which mean that it was late into the day; they had been driving for a few hours. Where were they?

She awkwardly hobbled to the edge of the van and allowed Jace, who had already gotten out, to help her down. She carefully cradled her arm to her chest, being sure to keep it still, so that she wouldn't be in much pain. She looked around and saw that they were in a fenced in parking lot of a large compound. The building was white with large, boarded up windows across the majority of it. Clary saw where they had been boarded up with plywood to keep the zombies out.

"What are we doing here?" Clary asked; her voice was scratchy from disuse.

Valentine smiled down at her and said, "Welcome to my home, daughter."

Clary looked around again, and tried to figure out what her father was talking about. There was nothing around the place that reminded her of a home. Clary wouldn't have thought to have stopped there and stay a night, let alone _live_.

"What the hell?" Clary questioned. She turned around and looked at her father.

"Ah, Stormwalker," Valentine said. He turned around and Clary saw a large man walking their way stiffly. He was in a large leather trench coat that brushed on his ankles as he moved. "Do me a favor and take these two to their newest location."

Stormwalker nodded stiffly and motioned for Jace and Clary to start moving. Jace grabbed her good hand and began moving in the direction that Stormwalker; apparently he had learned from when they were out in the forest and didn't want to repeat the experience.

"And Stormwalker," Valentine said, as an afterthought. "get some things for Herondale to fix up my daughter's arm."

Stormwalker led them away from the main building and toward two smaller cabin-like ones that were sitting almost dejectedly at the edge of the fenced in lot. They walked to the closest one, and up the small ramp that led to the door. Stormwalker opened it up and swept his arm in, motioning for them to move. Jace pulled Clary inside behind him, and as soon as Clary's feet were inside of the threshold, he slammed the door shut behind her.

The room was casted into shadows, though she could still see dimly, thanks to the windows that were on either wall. None of them were large enough for her or Jace to climb through to escape.

"Clary?" Jace asked her. She inhaled shakily just before Jace's arms wrapped firmly after her. She felt her knees buckle a moment later as a sob tore its way out of her throat. What the hell was going on? Why was her father doing this? Where was the Valentine that she had known as a child? The stern but supportive and loving man that had raised her with her mother?

Oh, God. Her father had pulled a gun on her and shot her to get Jace to cooperate. What was going on in her life to make this even possible?

"Clary," he said quietly, "everything's going to be alright."

"My dad just kidnapped us," Clary snapped, unsure if she was even speaking coherently. "He shot me in the shoulder and then took us away from our friends. We don't know where we are and there's no plausible way of us getting out. Even if we did, we don't know where we are, so we might not be able to find our way back to Idris!"

"Don't think about that," Jace told her quietly. "I'm going to make everything okay."

Clary didn't say anything, because she was way too doubtful of him to respond.

"I'm just happy that I found you before it was too late," he murmured. "I was terrified that you'd be gone, and I'd never see you again."

Clary felt her heart thud a bit harder at that admission, despite the fact that everything else was crashing down around her. Jace was still happy to be around her, even though going after her had put his own life in danger. She tightened her arms around him. His arms tightened around her and then she felt his hand gliding around his back.

"Please calm down," he murmured. "You're hurt, and you don't need to stress yourself out."

Clary nodded her head, not trusting herself to speak anymore. She'd sounded like a total wreck the last time that she had opened her mouth, and she didn't want a repeat of that. It would probably just freak Jace out.

He didn't say anything to her after that. He just held her and rocked her side to side as he rubbed her back.

They were abruptly interrupted as the door slammed open again. Clary flinched and tore away from Jace. When she turned around, she saw that Stormwalker was standing in the doorway with a large white box in his hand. "Here," he grunted in a deep voice, holding out the box.

Jace stepped toward him and grabbed the box out of his hands. Stormwalker didn't say another word as he turned around and walked away, shutting the door behind him. Jace didn't turn around to face Clary right away, and she found out a moment later why. There was a low buzzing noise for a moment before a lone lightbulb in the center of the ceiling flickered to life.

He turned around with a small half-smile. "I guess that's a small gift," he admitted as he walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her again, trapping her arms against her body. "They have a generator."

Clary didn't say anything, she just rested her head against his chest and closed her eyes and said a silent prayer, wanting nothing more than to go back to the way that things used to be. Why did her life have to be so complicated?

* * *

_**~Jace~**_

It was a few hours later and he and Clary were sitting on the single tiny bed that was crammed against the back corner of the room. The place was more like a crummy bedroom, though Jace imagined that it had been someone's office before the world had ended. He had finished fixing her arm up. He wasn't exactly Magnus or Ragnor, but he figured that he had done a good enough job. She had assured him that she felt better, but Jace didn't know if she actually felt that way, or if she was just saying that to stop him from worrying.

"Are you alright?" Jace asked her quietly.

"I'm fine," she replied. "My arm doesn't even really hurt all that much." She turned around and said, "You didn't sleep on the way here. Why don't you take a nap?"

"I'm not going to be able to sleep," Jace told her. "I don't like sleeping in unsecure places."

"I'll watch over you," she promised him. "I can wake you if something happens. You're tired, though, and we both know that sleep deprivation is more dangerous than sleeping most times."

"I know," Jace said, hating how much she was right.

She scooted away from him, and before Jace could demand to know what she was doing, she reached out and grabbed his hand and tugged on it. She was propped against the corner of the wall, resting comfortably. "Come on," she murmured, patting her lap. "Lay down."

"Fine," Jace said quietly. He shifted and slung his legs on to the mattress, laid his back on the bed and rested his head on her lap, marveling at how comfortable she was a pillow.

"I love your hair," she admitted to him quietly before he felt her hands latch themselves on his curls. She began playing with his hair and massaging his scalp. He sighed at the feeling and closed his eyes. He'd never been so happy that someone loved his hair so much. She could play with it all day if she wanted to, and he wouldn't say a word about it. He didn't care what anyone had to say about it.

He felt himself falling asleep slowly, and just before he drifted off, he felt a light pressure on his lips. The thought made him smile as he finally lost consciousness.

When he woke up, his head was on a lumpy pillow instead of on Clary's lap. He rubbed his eyes, trying to wake up a bit more. He yawned before asking, "Did my big head get too heavy?"

His stomach clenched when he got no answer. It was dark in the room as he looked around, so he had to squint to see the silhouettes of the sparse furnishing…there was no Clary. He quickly pushed himself off the bed and turned in a complete circle, trying to see if he had just missed her. She still wasn't there.

"No," he murmured. He rushed to the door and tried the knob. It was still locked. He banged on the door as hard as he could, stinging his hands and making his ears ring. "Clary!" he shouted loudly. "Clary!"

There was no answer.

"Damn it!" he roared. "Where is Clary!"

* * *

_**~Tessa~**_

She woke up floating…. No, she wasn't floating, but she was moving. She stiffened and opened her eyes and saw that someone was carrying her. Before she gave herself enough time to see who it was, she lashed out, and landed her elbow on the person's stomach. She hit very firm muscles, but her blow was hard enough for the person to blow out air and double over, dropping her. She rolled when she hit the ground and came up to her feet.

She tensed, ready to fight, and almost immediately relaxed. Jon and Will were standing in front of her…well Will was almost on the forest floor. Guilt immediately swarmed her and she rushed forward and wrapped her arm around his shoulders and placed her hand on his stomach, where she had hit him.

"Oh my gosh, Will," she said, "I am so sorry! Are you okay?"

"Jeez, Tessa," Jon said. "Way to show your gratitude!"

Tessa felt herself flush and squeezed Will harder and rubbed her hand across the surface of his stomach, trying her best to ignore the muscles that she could feel just under his shirt. "It's okay," Will said, his voice tight. "I'm okay." He straightened up and so that Tessa stood just under him. She looked up at him concernedly and he gave her a pained smile, "You have a sharp elbow and one hell of a swing."

She felt her face get a bit warmer and she looked down. "I am so sorry," she said.

"Don't worry about it," Will said quickly. "I'm not upset." He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her against his side. He winked at her and said, "As much as I adore you hugging me of your own freewill, we need to get moving."

That was when everything came back to Tessa. The warmth in her face immediately rushed away, and her entire body was consumed by an icy coldness. "Clary?" she asked quietly.

Both boys visibly tensed at that one word. "We're going to get her back," Will said with such surety that it was hard to doubt him. "I swear to you that I won't stop until you see your sister again."

Tessa nodded, and felt the backs of her eyes starting to burn as she forced back tears. "They have Jace too," Jon told her as he walked over and placed a hand on her shoulder. "He's one of the most capable people that I know, Tessa; if anyone can watch over Clary, no matter how insane she is, Jace can.

Tessa inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly. She'd known Jace for a few months and knew that he was good at whatever he decided to put his mind to doing. That didn't mean that she felt any better about this. Her father, who had apparently completely succumbed to complete psychosis, had taken Clary. Tessa needed to be with her sister so that she could see for herself that she was okay. Until she saw her sister again, she wouldn't be able to rest easy.

All she wanted to do was break down and freak out. She knew that she couldn't, though, if she was going to get Clary back. She nodded and inhaled deeply. "Okay," she said, "what are we going to do now?"

"I have an idea of where she's going," Jonathan said as they began walking again.

"Where?" Tessa asked? Looking over at the hulking form of her brother.

"The van had the logo _Raziel_ on it," Will, who hadn't let her go, said. "It's a company that made medications."

"Yeah," Tessa nodded. "My dad worked there."

"It was the company that started all of this," Will said. "I figured that it would be overrun."

"It was over three years ago when all of this started," Jon said. "It's very possible that all of the stragglers left to find food, since everyone that was there would be dead."

"That's true," Will said. He frowned and looked at Tessa and then at Jon, "Your father's still alive, though. How did he not die with the others?"

"I don't know," Tessa said. "He said that he got out before things got too bad. We were so happy that he got out unscathed that we never really questioned it."

Will nodded his head and said, "I can understand that, I guess." Tessa figured that he was a bit thrown off by her answer. Will questioned everything that didn't seem right; it was in his nature.

The forest started thinning out, and Tessa was able to see the gas station from their position. "We're going after her now, right?"

"We're going out there," Will said. "We're going to see what we can do."

Tessa started moving more quickly then. Jon and Will followed her example, probably sensing that she needed to move as fast as she could. They broke through the trees and moved toward the truck. She jumped in the passengers' seat and Jon got in the driver's seat.

Tessa was confused, but she figured that Will had never seen the company before, and Jon had. He knew how to get there. She heard the back door close and Jon started the engine and hit the gas, driving off. Tessa only realized a few hours later, that they had left the gas cans beside the pumps.

* * *

_**~Will~**_

No one said anything as they drove. It was a tense and unsettling silence. He had to admit that he was relieved as a huge white building, covered with windows came into view. There was a tall sign at the very front of the huge lot that said _Raziel_. Jon stopped the truck as soon as that was in view.

"I don't know how their security is, or even if there is any now," Jon told him. "We're more helpful to Clary and Jace if we're not caught."

Will opened the back door and pushed himself out. Tessa was beside him a moment later with a determined look on her face. He walked over and grabbed both of her upper arms and turned her so that she was facing him. She looked up at him with wide eyes and Will silently prayed that Jon would stay on the other side for a few moments. "Listen, Tess," he said quietly. "You're upset and I don't want you getting hurt."

"I'm fine," she said. "I just need to see that's she's okay."

"I want you to," Will said earnestly. "I don't want it to be at the cost of your life, though."

"What are you trying to say?" she asked him.

"I want you to stay here," he told her. "You go out there right now with how your head is, and you're going to get hurt. I know you will." Just talking about it was causing him so much stress that he started shaking. "Please, Tess, I can't stand the thought of you getting hurt."

Tessa looked at him, her lips parted slightly, as though she was looking for a way to reply, but she couldn't think of anything. Will couldn't hold it in anymore. He leaned forward and kissed her, pulling her against his front. It wasn't long or intimate, he just pressed his lips harshly against hers. He pulled away quickly and leaned his forehead against hers, looking into her wide eyes. "Please, Tessa." He whispered.

"I…" she trailed off, her eyes shining slightly, only confirming for Will that she wasn't stable. "Will…." She sighed, "She…." A small sniffle came out of her and she finally just nodded. "Fine," she murmured. "You'd better get her back."

"Thank you," he said. "I'll do everything that I can."

"You guys ready?" Jon asked.

Will let go of Tessa and backed away just before Jon came into view. He looked at them with a raised eyebrow. "Tessa isn't going," Will told him. "She's staying here and watching the truck."

Jon looked in between them and a small sigh came out of his mouth. "I don't know how you convinced her, but thank you."

Will nodded and gave Jon a pained smile, trying not to look too guilty. "No problem." He looked at Tessa and said, "Get in the truck and lock the door. If someone that isn't us comes up, drive away. Do you understand?"

She nodded quietly and said, "Please be careful, both of you."

Will and Jon both walked off. He turned his head around and looked back a few moments later, just making sure that Tessa was safely inside of the truck. He sighed in relief as he saw her in the driver's seat. Was it bad that he liked the sight of her in the driver's seat of his truck?

They were behind the cover of trees a few moments later. Jon looked at him and said, "If we were in any other situation, I'd probably kick your ass for looking at my sister the way that you do."

"What about now?" Will questioned as they passed the huge _Raziel_ sign.

"She looks at you the same way," he replied. "I trust you, but don't hurt Tessa. She might seem like a strong and open person, but she's fragile."

Will had a feeling that Jon thought that Tessa was more frail than she actually was. He could respect that protectiveness that Jon had of his sisters. If Cecily had a guy after her like Will was after Tessa, he would probably threaten to have certain bits and pieces removed from the boy if he even thought about taking advantage of her.

"I'm not going to hurt her," Will promised him. "I want to look after her."

"I know," Jon replied. "We'll talk about this later. Let's just go and see what the hell's going on with my little sister. If Jace hasn't watched out for her, you're going to be out of a cousin."

"Fine by me," Will shrugged before he quickened his pace and started rushing through the trees to get closer to the building.

There was a huge fence covering the entire compound. Will saw movement on the outside of the strip of trees that he and Jon were moving in. He swore quietly and he snatched the back of Jon's shirt and snatched him toward him. Jon began to curse at him before Will slapped a hand over Jon's mouth and looked at him pointedly for a moment. _Shut the hell up_, he mouthed before taking his hand off Jon's mouth.

He pointed sharply at the point of the movement and then motioned for them to back away into the forest. Jon nodded and both of them walked backward and crouched into the brush. Will looked up as the movement passed them by. He saw two men walking along the fence.

"Damn it," he said under his breath before he looked back at Jon and shook his head. "They're organized enough to have a guard walking around a perimeter this large. We're never going to be able to get inside and out with everyone."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Jon hissed. "My sister's in there!"

"So is my cousin," Will snapped, "or did you forget that! Do you think I like keeping my little cousin out of my sight for any amount of time? I don't, but I'm not stupid. We're in over our heads with just two people. We have to find them first, and, if we're being realistic, we'll be really lucky if they're in good enough shape to fight. The only thing that we can be sure about is that your father hasn't kidnapped them just to kill them, so they'll still be alive for whatever he needs them for. We need to go back and get more people to get them out."

Jon looked at Will, his breathing coming out slightly uneven. Finally, he nodded and said, "Let's get the hell out of here…and you're explaining to Tessa why we don't have Clary with us."

"Fine," Will said. "Let's go."

* * *

**Alright, hope you enjoyed this busy chapter! Please lemme know what you think of it! What do you think is going to/would like to happen?**

**I have a favor to ask of you…well two favors really. My imagination is kind of burnt out, and my mind is grasping blanks for Shadowhunter last names (which is why I stole that stupid one that Simon made up in the codex). If anyone has any idea for some good Shadowhunter surnames, let me know. Also, I've been off this site so long, that I kind of want some good stories to read so that I can get back into the groove of things. Does anyone have any suggestions for some good stories to read? Thank you for all of those who cooperate! I'll give you a shout-out next chapter.**


	14. Never Listen to Family

_**Chapter Fourteen: Never Listen to Family**_

* * *

_**~Clary~**_

Jace had been dead to the world when a man opened her door. He had blond hair and dark eyes. "It's time to go," he told her. "Your father wants to see you."

Clary nodded and slowly shifted over, moving so that Jace's head was laying against the lone pillow that was on the bed. He woke up, looking groggy and Clary just smiled at him and leaned over and kissed him chastely. "Go back to sleep."

He nodded and closed his eyes again, drifting off quickly, much to Clary's surprise. He was normally a very light sleeper. He must have been exhausted, though she could understand that; a lot had gone on in a very small amount of time. She moved away from the bed and looked back at the intruding man, who was standing at the door, clearly uncomfortable.

"I'm ready," she said.

The man nodded and gestured for her to walk out. She did so without complaint and as soon as she was out of the doorway, the man shut it behind her and locked it. He looked at her strangely for a moment, and Clary figured it was because of the way that she had handled Jace. The man really should be grateful; if she hadn't soothed him and made him go back to sleep, he would have woken up and started some sort of massive riot before he would have allowed her to leave.

"Where are we going?" Clary questioned.

"To see Valentine," the man said shortly.

Clary rolled her eyes and said, "I know that. Where is he?"

"In his office," the man replied before he began walking toward the large white building. Clary followed behind him, knowing that there wasn't really a point in trying to escape. She had no idea where anything was; she had no weapon to fight the man in front of her, which meant that she couldn't get Jace out. If her father had been willing to shoot her because Jace wouldn't cooperate, she didn't want to think about what he would do to Jace if she broke out. She would never leave him anyway.

They got to a large glass door and the man pushed it open. Clary walked inside and saw two large men standing on either side of the doorway. She had no idea if they were supposed to be the first line of defense against the zombies or not, though she doubted it. The stragglers weren't exactly smart enough to use doors.

The man said nothing to the guards. He just walked past them as though they were not there. Clary, on the other hand, looked at them as they both glared at her. She was normally tough and fearless, but it was hard to be confident when two people that were more muscular than Jace and Will were both staring down at her.

She hurriedly followed the man down the hallway, putting plenty of space in between herself and the brutish guards. "What's your name?" she asked the man as they turned a corner.

He looked back at her suspiciously and asked, "Why do you want to know that?"

"So I can think of you as something other than _dude_," she replied smartly. "It's kind of weird walking with someone that you don't know the name of. Normally when I'm being led somewhere by someone, they either have a nametag or they introduce themselves."

"Michael," the man replied after a moment.

Before Clary could say anything else, he stopped and gestured for her to walk toward a doorway that was cracked open. She inhaled deeply and walked forward, pushing it open. She really didn't want to go inside; her father scared her, and she really hadn't wrapped her head around the fact that he was alive, much less evil and psychotic. She looked over at Michael, wondering if he would offer her an outing. When he just looked at her almost impatiently, she knew that he would be of no help to her.

Deciding to just suck it up and get everything over with, she sighed and pushed her way past the door.

Valentine's study was not what she had been expecting. She knew that her father had worked at the medicine plant, but she really didn't know what he'd done there. When she walked inside, she saw papers tacked to the walls with different drawings of chemical compounds. They were all labeled different names that she was fairly sure that she couldn't pronounce even if she wanted to.

Her father was hunched over the desk, scribbling something on a sheet of paper. He stopped when she walked inside.

"How's your arm?" he asked. Clary could almost believe that he was concerned. The fact that he was the cause of all of her anguish quickly diminished any form of affection that might have sprung from that thought.

She scowled at him and snatched, "You shot me. How do you think it feels?"

"Did Herondale fix it properly?" he asked.

"Yes," Clary said stiffly. "It doesn't mean that it doesn't hurt, asshole."

"I'm your father," Valentine said, clasping his hands together on his desk. It would be smart of you to remember that. You will speak to me with respect."

"Screw you," Clary snarled. "I've lived in this hell for over three years, the majority of with without you or my mother. What makes you think that you can come around after faking your death and ditching out on your family and try to control the way that I speak to you. You're lucky that I'm even speaking to you."

"I'm doing this for the good of the Earth," Valentine said, clasping his hands together calmly.

Clary blinked uncomprehendingly. "What the hell?" she said. "What does having me locked up have to do with anything about the world? Have you completely lost your damned mind?"

"Speak to me with respect, daughter," Valentine said calmly, "this is the last time that I will ask it of you. I will respectfully answer your question like you have not lost your own damned mind. Outside is survival of the fittest, the way that it needs to be. The weak are being picked off the earth and the strong are the ones that are surviving. We need this purge."

Clary opened her mouth to reply, but her mind was completely blank. Unable to form a coherent sentence, she just made unintelligible spluttering noises. She was right about one thing: Valentine was completely crazy.

"Don't look so shocked daughter," Valentine said calmly. "You're not an idiot; you know that most people are weak and worthless. We'll just be weeding out the weaklings. They have no place here. This is a chance for the strong to prove themselves!"

"You've actually gone crazy," she said faintly. "That's the only explanation for what the hell just came out of your mouth. A _purge?_ That's what you think all of this hell is? You think that people dying, coming back to life as walking corpses and walking around eating other people is a _good_ thing?" Clary just shook her head in denial of what she was hearing. She tried and tried to come up with a term that would properly describe just how psychotic what she was hearing was.

"So why am I here?" she finally asked sighing. "What do I have to do with all of this?"

"You see, daughter," Valentine said. "Out of the two of my children, you are the only one that inherited a rare enzyme in your blood that was able to fight off the infection. Your and my blood is the key to the cure."

"Okay," Clary said. "Then you need me to make it?"

Valentine shook his head slowly. "You're here, Clary," Valentine said, "because I want to keep you out of the hands of the people that are going to try to use you to find a cure."

Clary blinked and looked at him, already getting used to this psychosis. "You said two children," she said, "there are three of us."

"I only have two kids," Valentine snarled. "You notice my two children at least look somewhat like me. The oldest brat is no child of mine. Jocelyn had an affair with that pathetic dog, Lucian."

Clary blinked and felt a bit of her sanity slip after everything that had happened. "I think I'm ready to go back to Jace now," she said faintly. "I need to lay down."

"Go then," Valentine said.

Clary didn't hesitate to walk out of the room, not even looking back.

* * *

_**~Jace~**_

Jace had worn himself out, banging and beating on the door. His knuckles were bruised and his back and shoulder were sore by the time that he'd given up. He felt a throbbing in his foot from where he had attempted to kick the door down as he sat on the lumpy mattress with his face buried in his hands. He didn't want to think about what was happening to Clary while he was just sitting helplessly in this stupid building.

He heard the sound of hinges squeaking slightly as the door swung forward. He looked up and saw Clary standing there with a blond man. She stepped forward, seemingly unscathed. The guard didn't say a word as he swung the door shut. Clary looked as though she was unsure of anything at all as she sat down on the bed and looked at the wall in front of her. Jace walked forward and knelt down in front of her. "What?" he asked her. "What happened to you?"

"My dad wanted to talk to me," she said quietly. "He's crazier than I thought." She looked up at Jace, her green eyes filled with so much anguish that he was surprised that she hadn't been consumed completely by it. "I don't know if we can save him or not."

Jace knew that Valentine was beyond help when he shot Clary. He didn't mention that aloud, though. He figured that admitting to wanting to skewer her father with both of his blades and decapitate him with Will's sword wasn't the right path to travel. He smiled weakly at her and said, "We're going to do what we can, but your safety is my top priority right now."

Clary smiled weakly at him and shook her head, "I don't know if there is any help for me, Jace."

"What do you mean?" Jace asked frowning. "Were you bitten?" Freezing fear jolted through him, almost causing him to seize up. "Please tell me that you weren't bitten."

"No," she assured him. "It wouldn't matter if I was anyways."

Jace looked at her curiously. "Why?" he demanded. "It would matter a lot to me if you were bitten."

"I…I'm immune to the infection," she said quietly. "My father doesn't want anyone getting ahold of me because I'm the key to the cure."

Jace was silent for a moment as a small wave of relief washed over him. She would live through a bite. She was a lot safer than the majority of other people in the world. "That's a good thing…about the immunity, anyway. Don't think that he's going to do anything to you. I won't let him, okay? I swear I'm never going to sleep again."

Clary let out a small laugh and said, "I don't think that you being half asleep is going to do you or me any favors."

"I swear," Jace said solemnly, "I'm going to take care of you. You're going to see your sister."

Clary just nodded her head halfheartedly, as though she was just trying to placate him and she didn't actually believe what she was saying.

"We're going to get out of here tonight," Jace swore to her. "I'm not going to give him a chance to hurt you. Ever."

She looked at him with wide eyes and said, "Do you understand how many people are out there?"

"Do you know who you're talking to?" Jace asked cockily. "I can take anyone that comes my way." He turned a bit more serious as he looked at her injured shoulder. "You're hurt, though, so I want you to promise me that you'll stay beside me when we go and do exactly what I tell you to."

She opened her mouth, but no words came out of her mouth.

"I'm serious, Clary," he said.

Her hand came up to his cheek and she said, "I'm not letting you get hurt for me. You remember when I told you that you were really reckless and it was going to get you hurt. This is what I'm talking about."

"I'm smarter than you give me credit for," Jace told her. "Everything is going to be okay."

She was quiet for a moment before she sighed and said, "It'd better be."

* * *

_**~Tessa~**_

The ride back was going by so slowly that it was about to drive her completely mad. She felt every single second that ticked by, and every few minutes, she would ask where they were. Will would always answer her calmly, but she couldn't help but wonder when his patience would give out.

Will, who was at the wheel, cursed loudly a couple of hours into the drive and banged on the steering wheel harshly. "Son of a bitch," he swore. Tessa was about to ask what was wrong before she heard the engine begin to stutter and then stall. The vehicle immediately slowed and then stopped a few moments later.

"What's going on?" Tessa demanded, pushing herself out of her seat and forward so that she was leaning between the two front seats. Will looked over at her with such a despairing gaze that Tessa felt a pit already starting to open itself up in her stomach.

"We're out of gas," Will told her. "We didn't pick up any at the station because of Clary, and I never thought about it afterward for the same reason." He slammed his hand against the wheel again as a display of agitation.

"We'll just find some," Tessa reasoned. She looked out of the windshield and saw that they were on a long stretch of a highway that was lined by overgrown fields on either side.

Will seemed to be following her train of thought, because he said, "That's not going to be easy."

"When did the sky get that dark?" Jon asked. Tessa looked up and saw with a grimace that the sky looked horrible…as though it was about to start pouring down buckets of water on them at any moment. She honestly didn't think that her situation could get any worse.

"I don't know," Will said. "We can't just stay here, though. Stragglers will eventually find us, and I don't feel like become a midnight snack for anyone…"

Jon agreed and opened the door. He jumped out and slammed it shut behind him. Will turned and gave Tessa a sly grin. "I'd be your midnight snack, though, if you wanted it."

Tessa felt heat come to her face as she lightly slapped his shoulder. "Be serious Will."

"I don't do serious," Will told her. "You don't want to see me serious, Tess. It's not a good sight."

For some reason, Tessa believed him. "Fine then," Tessa said. She backed away from him and crawled out of the backseat. Jon was waiting for them impatiently.

"It's going to start raining quickly," Jon said, looking up at the sky. "We need to find shelter until it passes."

"What about—"

"He's right, Tess," Will said, circling around the truck and coming to stand next to her brother. "It's not safe out here."

Tessa looked around at the empty fields that went on for almost all of her eyesight both ways until it abruptly cut off and forests began. "I don't know where we're going to find shelter before all of this begins," she snapped. "There's none around here! We're better off looking for a gas station so that we can get the gas and getting out."

"What are you going to do when you see a zombie in the middle of the rainstorm and you have to fight it," Jon countered patiently. "You're going to be weighed down by water, and you're going to be a lot slower. You're going to get hurt. Neither of us want you to get hurt and neither of us want to get hurt ourselves."

"Well, you guys can go and find shelter," Tessa snapped. "I'm going to save our sister!" She looked pointedly at Jon as she spoke. She turned away from them and began walking down the road stubbornly. Her insides were lit up so hot with anger that she was surprised that she wasn't boiling from the inside out. They didn't want her to go and save Clary, something that they were supposed to have done on their own. It was Tessa's criteria for staying behind; Will had promised her that he would get her sister back, and he had lied. She didn't need him anyway! She clenched her hands into fists defiantly as she marched down the road.

The sound of footsteps rushing out after her was audible, but Tessa just ignored it. "Fine!" Will called out from behind her.

Tessa paused and turned around. She hadn't thought that she would get her way that easily. "We'll do it your way," he said, though she could tell that he didn't like it. "Well, we'll have a compromise. If you go with Jonathan and find some place safe to settle down before all of this blows over, I'll go and find a place for fuel. Does that sound fair?"

Tessa shook her head. "I don't want to split up," she said, "That's how we got into this mess in the first place."

"Then what do you propose?" Will demanded.

"We all go and get gas!" Tessa snapped. "What else would I propose?"

"Tessa," Jon said. "We're very experienced. Nothing is going to get to either of us. Will is perfectly capable of going and getting the gas. He and Jace are used to doing this kind of stuff."

"Clary and I are used to scrounging," Tessa snapped. "There's a reason that we're still alive!"

"I know that," Jon said. "Will is going to be okay." He looked up at the sky and said, "If we want to get the gas or the shelter before the sky opens up, we're going to have to hurry. We don't have time to start arguing about this! Stragglers are going to end up catching up with us and I don't want to be swarmed. We have to go."

Tessa looked at Will and walked forward. Jon was there, but she didn't care. She grabbed his face in her hands and brought it down so that she was kissing him. Will jumped, clearly not expecting it. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held him tightly. She let out a small sigh as he finally wrapped his arms around her and enveloped her in the most wonderful and relaxing hug that she had ever had.

"You'd better be safe, William Herondale," she said quietly. "Don't you dare make me find your corpse walking around."

"I promise," Will said. He looked as though he was holding himself back from completely devouring her…probably courtesy of her brother standing just out of hitting distance. "Now go with Jon." He released her and slowly stepped back from her.

The first thing that Tessa saw was her nauseated brother, standing a few feet off. He looked as though he was about to puke all over the street. "Let's get the hell out of here," Jon said weakly, "before I die from brain damage from the mental scarring that you just subjected me to."

"Grow up, Jonathan," Tessa scolded, wishing that her voice didn't sound so airy. She turned around and saw that Will was looking at her with a dazed expression. "

"Get her out of here," Will told Jon faintly.

Jon nodded at Will curtly and grabbed Tessa's hand. "Let's go big sister," he said before they began walking back toward the part of the road that they had come from. Tessa looked behind her and saw that Will was starting to hurry in the other direction, power-walking toward the forest area that was almost completely out of her vision. She felt fear squirm in her stomach as she prayed that he was going to be alright on his own.

* * *

**I know, I haven't gotten Will's POV on this. No worries, I'll do two of his next chapter! I just wanted to get this up because you all are so freaking cool. Thank you all for the names that you came up with. They all sound badass, and I think that they are perfect for villain names! Thanks! And I've been really busy for the past few days. I've managed to look at a couple of the fics that you all told me about, but I'll get around to looking at them…promise.**

**All of the people who were kind enough to help me out last chapter! You're all amazing!**

_**Williukea—**_**No, I have not read Lady Midnight, though I do have the book and have started it.**

_**Lilahjomiyoko**_

_**AndTheSaintsAreAllMadeOfGold**_

_**Debra Williams**_

_**Luvmortalinstruments**_

_**Howling2themoon**_

_**Boo**_


	15. Never Split Up

**Yeah, this format is a bit different...there are only two point of view in this chapter, but if you notice how long it is, you might understand why. I hope you like it anyway!**

* * *

_**Chapter Fifteen: Never Split Up**_

* * *

_**~Will~**_

He had no idea how he could be walking down a long, dark street and smiling like a complete idiot. He managed it, though. He knew that he was risking his life, but for some reason he couldn't find it in himself to care. Tessa cared about him…she kissed him and she told him to be careful. Will thought about her and Jon walking toward the other side of the highway and looking for shelter. His heart started racing at the thought of her being hurt because he wouldn't be there to help her. God, this was going to be the death of him.

He sped up to a near run. The sooner he got this gas, the sooner he could get back into the truck and get back to Tess.

It took him half an hour to cover enough ground to get to a station. The roof was almost completely caved in and something told Will that it had just happened. The wind had picked up tremendously since he'd started walking, and was whipping in his face and causing his hair to hit his eyes every few moments. He knew that if the tree had just fallen, it would have made an obscene amount of noise. If that was the case, this place would be swarmed with the hungry undead soon. "Come on, Herondale," he muttered to himself. It was time to start moving.

He walked over to the front door of the building and saw that the glass was completely gone from it. This was perfect…if the rain started, this would provide as much shelter as he would get standing outside. He stepped through, his feet crunching on the glass that was just behind the door.

As soon as he was inside, he was casted into shadows, just like the rest of the room. Plaster and shingles were everywhere around the huge branch that was just lying halfway on the ground, as though it was supposed to be there. Part of the old counter was completely smashed, which would make getting the gas very inconvenient, but he could manage. Now, all he needed was a gas container.

He sighed as he skipped over the debris from the roof, and stifled a curse as he came across a straggler…well half of one anyway. It's bottom half was caught under a fallen isle. Its arms were reached out toward him and if Will wouldn't have seen it, the creature's hand would have snagged his leg, and he probably would have been scratched. That would have been a disaster. He would have passed out, and would have either become unconscious food for the stragglers that were bound to be heading for this place, or the infection that the scratch would cause would kill him in a matter of hours. Neither prospect seemed good.

"That was close," he muttered to himself before he brought his booted foot down on the straggler's face. He didn't want to risk being distracted with that little bastard still alive. Moving on.

He walked a bit farther down the fallen isle, toward the back of the store. He saw the shattered coolers that held the drinks, and cans of soft drinks and alcohol that had exploded laying at the floor in front of the doors. Without any sort of warning, he heard the sound of glass crunching and then something large and empty hitting the floor. He turned abruptly, suddenly wishing that he'd remembered his flashlight.

Part of him wanted to walk back out of the door, and pretend that he hadn't even seen the station, but he knew that he couldn't. All it took was him thinking about how determined Tessa had been to get back to her sister, and he was lost. He couldn't let her down, and there was no way that he was going to see a look of disappointment in her eyes if he could do something about it. He inhaled deeply, trying to get ready for what was about to happen before he took another step forward. There was the sound of crunching glass again, and then a throaty growl that was definitely from a straggler, possibly one of the squished zombie's friends.

He made it to the end of the store a moment later, and as soon as he passed the point where the upright isles had been blocking his vision, he saw something very, very bad. Six stragglers were all huddled over something, and the faint squelching sounds hit his ears, and he knew what that meant, though he really didn't want to admit that to himself for fear of getting sick.

He looked around slowly and saw that conveniently, the gas cans were on the other side of the stragglers. There was no way to sneak past them, because the huge tree limb was in the way. That only left one option: going the way that he had originally intended.

"Alright," he said to himself before he placed both of his pinkies in his mouth and whistled shrilly. The zombies slowly turned to look at him, and Will honestly wished that they wouldn't have. Their rotting faces had blood dripping from it, and it was like them moving allowed the metallic tang just waft toward him. That mixed with the disgusting smell of decay was enough to make his stomach roll. He actually gagged for a moment before composing himself again.

It took the undead a moment to go after him. It was as though they were debating whether eating the dead carcass, which they had already managed to apprehend and had full access to was better than getting Will. Apparently fresh meat called out to them a bit more strongly, however, because they slowly got to their feet.

Much to Will's surprise, these ones walked a bit more quickly than some of the other zombies that he had seen over the past few years. They let out a loud growling sound as one of them lurched forward. Will thought that he was about to trip over something, but he didn't. He had just put on a bit more speed. Will was startled, but thankfully he didn't let him faze him. He snatched his sword out of the sheath that he had strapped to his back and swung it forward, decapitating it easily before it could get more than a couple of feet toward him.

"What the hell?" Will demanded, as though the zombies were going to be able to answer him. They didn't. All that happened was the rest of them followed the example of their apparent leader and lurched toward him. Will jumped slightly and backed a step away before he swung his sword around, catching one by its neck, chopping it off cleanly. He caught another by the head. It went in enough to wedge the sword, but not enough to completely penetrate the brain. Of course, this corpse had to be newer…the bones were less brittle, so it held the wedged sword.

Will tried to yank it out, but he wasn't at a good angle, and there were more zombies to worry about. Grimacing, he dropped his sword and took another couple of steps back as he desperately looked around the shelves for anything that might come in handy. He spotted the tree limb and jumped on top of the fallen isle to get to it. He bent a long, thin branch and started bending it, trying to get it to snap off. He looked behind him and saw that the zombies were starting to clamber on to the isle to get to him.

_Shit,_ he thought to himself, _shit, shit, shit!_

The branch wasn't breaking, and the zombie that had his sword stuck in its head was still trying to get up, because it was apparently weighing him down. Will saw that the other two had gotten up and were quickly stumbling after him. Will looked down and saw a can of corn sitting on the isle at his feet. Not even thinking twice about it, he ducked down and grabbed the can and moved to the side, away from the stragglers. He moved in at the last minute, hoping to catch them off guard. It didn't work as well as what he was hoping. The zombie swung at him, but Will knew blocked the swing and smashed the can over the straggler's head, aiming straight for the temple. The zombie dropped, its head caving in slightly.

There was only one problem with that, however.

When the zombie dropped, Will was trying to move out of the way, but he wasn't as fortunate as he would have liked to have been, and he was wearing ratty pants. The zombie's hand fell down, snagged on a hold and tore open the bottom part of his pant leg, and Will could feel the scratch that embedded itself into his skin.

He cursed as pain started flaring up his right side, but he didn't go down. He kept limping. He knew that he didn't stand a chance against the zombies now. He had to get out of there, or things were going to get ugly for him and fast. He limped away from the stragglers, glad that he was still quicker than them. He walked out of the glass of the store and felt a curse fly from his mouth as he saw zombies coming from the forest on the other side of the road. Could this possibly get any worse?

Just as that last thought flew into his head, a loud clap of thunder shook the ground and lightning arched over his head. A moment later, rain started pouring down in buckets on to his head. He didn't stop, though, he kept going. The only thing that he could think of to be grateful for was that the straggler had scratched him on his leg, which was farther away from his heart. It would take a while for the poison to spread that way.

He looked around desperately, and knew that there was nowhere else to go but back the way that he came and pray that he found some sort of shelter before his body completely gave in.

* * *

_**~Tessa~**_

The shelter that they found was actually rather cozy…well she would have found it that way if her sister and Jace would have been there with her. At the moment, the only thing that she could really tell about the small cottage was that it was nice. Her and Jon had stopped at the first house that they had seen and they were now standing in front of the establishment. "Alright," Jon told her. "Let's check it out."

He walked in front of her, and she couldn't help but roll her eyes at his attitude. She could take care of herself, but she couldn't help but smile at how protective he was of her sometimes. He twisted the knob, and it opened without any hesitation. That usually meant only one of two things: the owners left with no intention of coming back and never bothered to lock the door, or others had come by and used it. If it was the second option, they might still be inside of the house. Though, whether or not they were dead could be up for debate.

Jon seemed to realize this, because he clicked on a flashlight that he had thought to bring from the truck and said, "Hello? If there's anyone in here, please speak up. I swear that we're not here to hurt anyone. We just want some shelter from the storm."

There was no answer, but she heard the sound of feet padding on the floor. Either, the people very close to the front door that were hiding form her and Jon, or there were stragglers that were walking around the house, perked up by the noise that they were creating. Jon must have realized both possibilities, because he pulled a long knife from a sheath by his side; it was the same type of blade that Jace used. "Let's go in and see who's home," he muttered. "Be careful, Tessa."

"Same," she murmured, reaching up and ruffling his hair before she pulled her own weapon out. Jon walked in first. The front door led into a dark hallway. Jon shined his light forward to see what was in front of them. It was clear, aside from a bit of clutter that probably happened when people were trying to vacate the house. Directly to their right were two French doors that undoubtedly led into a bedroom. When Jon shined his light on them, she saw a reddish brown hand print that slid down to almost the floor.

"That looks comforting," Jon muttered. Despite his words, he reached his hand out and twisted the knob on one of the doors while Tessa did the same with the other. They pushed them both forward at the same time, tensing slightly in anticipation. Nothing came at them aside from specs of dust and the smell of stagnated air. She and Jon both walked inside and turned to look around. Something pounded slightly on the door beside them. She turned to look at it. Jon did as well and they both walked toward it.

"Get the door," Jon told her as he crouched slightly with his knife ready to swing.

Tessa nodded and moved to grab the knob. Before she could twist the handle, someone shouted, "Don't open that!"

The loud noise caused her to jump and the noise in the closet to get louder as whatever was inside became more desperate to get out. Both she and Jon spun around and Jon shone the light, trying to find the source of the noise. She came across two heads. They were too short to be anything but kids. She took a step toward them and both of them hurried back. Tessa held up her hands and said, "Wait! We're not going to hurt you, I promise."

They both paused, but they were obviously weary. There was a young girl with long, curly blond hair and a young boy with dark, shaggy hair. They both looked at them with wide eyes and Tessa could tell that they were waiting for them to do something to cause them to run.

"Are you with anyone else?" Tessa asked them quietly.

"No," the girl said. She took a step forward, and the boy tried to grab her hand and pull her back, but she wouldn't be deterred. "Who are you?"

"My name is Tessa," she said and then she pointed beside her to Jon, "this is my brother, Jon. Can you tell us your names?"

"I'm Emma," she said. She pointed behind her to the boy and said, "this is Julian."

"Why are you guys by yourselves?" Tessa asked. As much as she wanted to help the children, she couldn't help but remember her number one rule: never trust strangers. For all she knew, these little children could be a part of a large and psychotic group of murderers.

"My parents went out to get some goods over a week ago," Julian said quietly. "They never came back."

Tessa felt her heart throb slightly in sympathy and she looked over at Jon, who looked as though he felt for them too. "How long has it been since you've had anything to eat?" Tessa asked.

"Four days," Emma replied. "They didn't leave until they absolutely had to, and supplies were so low that they didn't have a choice."

"Okay," Tessa said, her mind racing. "How much of this house has been checked?"

"All of it," Emma said. "A zombie got in two days ago, and we lured it into the closet and shut it in there."

Tessa wanted to ask how they had managed that without getting hurt, but decided that there were more pressing matters to worry about. She turned and looked at Jon again. "We need to get them something to eat."

"I know," Jon sighed. "Let's take them into the living room and see what we can do." He motioned with a move of his head for them to move. "Come on," he said, "let's talk in a place that doesn't have a zombie pounding on the door."

The kids looked as though they were about to protest, but Jon held up a hand. "Come on. The sooner we get this done, the sooner you guys get fed."

That seemed to influence their decision. Both of them started moving toward the French doors, albeit, slowly. "Come on," she said as she began moving toward the exit too.

"You go and talk to them," Jon said. "I'm going to take care of this and check the rest of the house."

Tessa nodded and walked out of the room, closely followed by Emma and Julian. There was a sitting room directly across the hall from the bedroom. Tessa sat down on the closest recliner and sighed in relief. It was quite comfy. Emma and Julian took the couch and she saw that they had their hands clasped together, most likely for support. "Okay," she said, "first question: were you two just with Julian's parents?"

"Yes," Julian said. "It was just the four of us. We were in a large group, but…" he trailed off for a moment before he said, "but some psycho with black hair, leading a large group of people dressed in red robes came in and…and…."

He trailed off, not finishing the sentence, but he really didn't need to. Tessa could piece together what had happened, and when the puzzle was completed, it didn't paint out a very pretty picture. She looked over at Emma and gave her a sad smile. She had a feeling that her parents hadn't made it out of the massacre. There was a thump from the other room. The kids jumped and turned to look at the noise. Tessa did as well and called out, "Jonathan?"

"I'm fine," he assured her. "Straggler's dead."

He walked out a moment later with a small amount of blood on his hand and arm. He gave both kids a reassuring smile and then winked at Tessa before he walked farther down the hallway and out of sight. Tessa turned back around to look at Emma and Julian. "Okay," she said, "how old are you guys?"

"Twelve," Emma replied. "We're both twelve."

Tessa closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. How did she explain to a pair of twelve-year-olds that the only people that they had left to care for them and for them to trust were dead, and that they needed to come with a group of strangers and rely on them for care? She had missed that lecture in all of her classes in high school.

"Okay," she said, deciding to save that lecture for later. "Can you guys just sit tight for a little bit?" she asked just as a loud clap of thunder shook the house. "I'm going to go and find you some food."

"Where at?" Emma asked incredulously.

"Don't worry about that," Tessa said. "I'll get it for you." She pushed herself up to her feet, but Emma stood right up with her. Julian was with her a moment later, and Tessa looked at the wearily. "What?"

"The last time that someone said that, they didn't come back," Emma protested. "We're not stupid; we know what happened to Jules' parents, if you go out there, you're not going to come back."

"I'll be back," Tessa assured her. "Don't worry about it." She walked out of the room and looked down the hallway. "Jon?" she questioned.

"What, Tessa?" Jon asked. He wasn't anywhere in sight, but she heard his voice come from the back doorway on the hall. He showed up in that exact spot a moment later and raised an expectant eyebrow at her.

"Can you handle the two kids?" she questioned. "I'm going to go and find them some food."

"Where at?" Jon demanded. "Did you hear that thunder? It's about to rain!"

"They haven't eaten in four days," Tessa said calmly. "I think I can tough out a bit of rain if I can get them some food. I'll be back soon. It's like a fifteen-minute walk to the truck."

"That's thirty minutes in the rain," Jon informed her, "it's cold as hell out there."

"I'm glad that your math skills have improved," Tessa said. "I know how long it will take me. I'll be back soon, and there are bound to be clothes here. I'll just change into something else."

He looked at her as though he was about to argue, but Tessa beat him to it. "You're better with kids than I am. You stay here and I'll be back. Take that as an order from your big sister."

She didn't wait for him to argue. She just turned around and walked out of the front door. Rain was already starting to beat down. Tessa sighed and looked down at her wrist. There was an elastic band around it. She sighed in relief and quickly pulled her hair back in a quick bun. She would need it out of the way if she was going to stay safe. She stepped off the porch and into the downpour. She hissed as the freezing water hit her skin, but sucked it up and kept walking. By the time she was on the road again, she was completely soaked through and really couldn't register the temperature of the rain, because it was the same as her freezing skin.

The walk was horrible. Her teeth were chattering halfway through and by the time that she found the truck, she was almost completely numb. She squinted through the downpour as she got within sight of the red paintjob of the truck in order to make sure that she was actually seeing what she thought that she was seeing. There were several stragglers surrounding the vehicle. That meant that there must have been someone inside. The joke was on them, however; they wouldn't be getting anywhere on an empty gas tank.

She walked toward it anyway. Wanting to know why ten or so zombies were trying to get inside of her ride. As she got closer, she saw that they were throwing themselves against the driver's side door, desperate to get inside. She was thankful that the rain masked the sound of her footsteps as she approached the first one. She grabbed her dagger and plunged it into the back of the straggler's head, and wrenched it out before it could fall and take the knife with it. She managed to get the second one like that too, but when she got to the third zombie, she paused. It had a long sword sticking out of its head.

Tessa knew that sword. She felt her heart sink into her stomach as she charged it and drove her knife into the back of its skull so hard that it's skull caved in slightly. It fell awkwardly and Tessa snatched up Will's sword when it was down. That was when the rest of the stragglers must have realized that more attainable food was in their reach. They all turned around and headed toward her.

She swung the sword at the first one that came up, and sliced the neck cleanly off just in time to back away so that the next one didn't scratch her. She slammed her knife into that one's temple and it fell. She stabbed the sword forward and impaled the zombie standing directly in front of her and it dropped to the ground. There were four more, and they were all moving toward her with a lot more speed than she remembered zombies having.

She cursed as she backed away just in time for a set of hands to miss her cheek by a couple of millimeters. She automatically lashed out and drove her knife into that zombie's forehead. It went down, taking her weapon with it. She would have cursed, but she was using all of her concentration on not dying. She grabbed Will's sword with two hands and swung desperately at the two zombies in front of her. She caught one on the neck with the tip of her blade, but it wasn't enough to take it down. Another came at her from the side at the same time that the third jumped at her from her other side. She backed out of the way hurriedly and swung the sword desperately. It caught both of them, one was decapitated completely, and the other lost an arm.

There were two remaining. One was really tall and had half of his cheek missing, while the other, the one that she had almost decapitated, was shorter. It looked as though it had been an old woman before it had changed into a rotting, walking corpse. They both lunged at her at the same time. She swung her sword and actually decapitated the woman this time, but the other one, the taller guy, she missed. It tackled her, and she hit the ground harshly. She felt all of the air come out of her, but she still tried to fight despite the fact that the corpse outweighed her by a lot.

She saw her life flashing before her and just when she thought that it was the end, the corpse collapsed. She let out a shuddering breath before she began pushing it off her. She felt it moving a bit easier, and knew that someone was helping her. A moment later, the permanently dead man was by her side and she could breathe properly again. She inhaled, coughing as rain rolled down her windpipe. She squinted up and saw one of the most wonderful sights in the world: William Herondale standing over her.

She blinked rapidly as she got to her feet and looked him over. He looked sickly and pale, something that terrified her as her heart plunged in her stomach again. "No," she said brokenly as she reached out and touched his face. "No, Will. Please tell me that you haven't been bitten." A tear rolled down her cheek as panic began to consume her.

Will inhaled raggedly and looked as though he was about to drop at any moment. He just shook his head though, but it looked as though it was taking him a lot of effort to do so. He began shuddering and trembling. Tessa rushed toward him and wrapped her arms around his middle as she buried her face against his soaked chest. "What's wrong?" she demanded.

"Scratch," he said faintly.

"Come on," Tessa said. She moved so that one arm was wrapped around his back and she walked him over to the truck. The driver's side door was open. He had been the one occupying the truck. She helped him up the step and sat him down in the seat. "There are some antibiotics in the kit," she said. "I'll get some for you." She opened the back door and rummaged underneath the seat. She pulled the large white box out and pulled the large medicine bottle out and opened it. She poured two into her hand and closed it back up. She ran back to him and motioned for him to open his mouth. When he did, she pushed them inside.

"What the hell are you doing out here?" he asked her weakly. His hand tiredly laid itself on her shoulder and he squeezed it softly, as though trying to assure himself that she was there and okay. She reached up and grabbed his hand and squeezed it in return.

"To get supplies," she replied. "We need to get some food and go. We're only a fifteen-minute walk from the cottage. Can you make it?"

"I don't think that I have a choice," Will replied tiredly. He pushed himself from the seat so that he was standing. He seemed to be pretty steady on his feet, though Tessa could see that he was favoring his right leg. She was willing to bet that was where he had been scratched. He reached over and touched her face, as he smiled wearily at her. He was obviously in a lot of pain. "Are you okay?" he asked her. "Did the zombie get you?"

"No," she said. "I'm fine aside from some road burn."

"Let me see it," he said as he took his hand off her face. She could tell that he was about to physically turn her around so that he could see a scrape on her back and make sure that she was alright despite how bad off he was.

She put her hand on his chest and said, "It's okay. We need to get out of this cold."

He nodded. "You're going to let me see it when we reach shelter, though." Tessa bristled at how much that sounded like an order, but she bit back the urge, knowing that he was only worried about her.

She turned away from him and walked to the back of the truck and pushed herself over the tailgate. She landed on the truck bed and had to catch herself before she slipped on the slick metal. She spotted the black book bag that was filled with canned goods and other nonperishables. She snatched it up and slid it on to her own back before she walked to the side of the truck and vaulted herself off and landed on the ground in a steady crouch. Will's hands were out, as though he was going to catch her. She doubted that he could have done much other than fell with her, though the thought was nice. She smiled at him and he reached for the strap on her shoulder. She backed away from him with a frown and snapped, "Don't be stupid."

"Give me the bag," he said. "I'll carry it."

"William," she said wearily. "You're sick. You've been scratched, and honestly I have no idea how you're still conscious, let alone walking. You're not carrying anything other than your own weight for as long as you can." She walked over to the backseat of the truck and grabbed the first aid kit.

She turned back around and saw Will scowling at her, and Tessa frowned right back. "This isn't up for discussion," she said. "Let's go."

He sighed and said, "Lead the way, fierce warrior angle."

Tessa smiled faintly at him and turned around to lead the way back down the road. Before she got more than a couple of feet, she kneeled down and grabbed her weapon, which was still in the back of a downed straggler's skull and Will's sword, which was lying next to it. She walked so that she was behind Will and slid his sword into its sheath. "There," she said, "you can carry your own sword."

"Thank you for the honor and permission, my lady," he said grouchily. Tessa couldn't help but smile at him as she walked so that she was standing at his side. "Go ahead and pout, Will; it looks good on you."

"Everything looks good on me," Will said cockily as they began walking again.

Tessa looked over at him worriedly and sighed. Judging by the way that he was limping badly, she was guessing that it was going to take more than a quarter of an hour to make it back to the cottage. Jon was going to kill her for making him worry, but it really couldn't be helped. He would hopefully understand when they got back.

By the time that they got back to the cottage, it had to be nighttime, though it was hard to tell the transition through the oppressive clouds and torrents of rain that were constantly attacking them. As soon as they got to the stairs, Will seemed to completely collapse. He legs gave out on him and he dropped to his knees and slumped forward. Tessa dropped to her knees beside him and looked him over worriedly. "Will?" she asked, grabbing his face in her hands and pulling his face so that he was looking at her. His eyes were half-lidded and he looked as though he couldn't make it another step. He wasn't getting back up on his own, that much was obvious.

She didn't have to worry about that, however. A moment later, the door opened and Jonathan ran out. Her brother didn't say a word as he grabbed one of Will's arms and his waist. A moment later, he was over Jon's shoulder. Her brother stood up and rushed back inside, leaving Tessa to scramble after him.

"Who's that?" Emma demanded as Tessa walked inside and shut the door behind her.

"Will," she said, unshouldering her pack and handing it to the girl. "There's food in there. Go and eat some with Julian. I'll be in the room for a little while."

She didn't wait for the little girl to answer, much to worried. Emma seemed to understand that, because she walked into the living room without a single complaint, tugging the sopping black bag behind her. Tessa rushed into the master bedroom and saw that Jon had already set Will on to the bed and had his pants off. Will was laying on his stomach while Jon was examining a single scratch down the calf of his right leg. Tessa walked in and noticed that there was no body in the room of the corpse that Jon and downed. She didn't question it, not really wanting to know the answer anyway.

"Here," Tessa said quietly, giving Jon the kit. He nodded in thanks to her as he sat it on the bed below Will's feet and opened it.

"You shouldn't be in here, Tess," Will said weakly. "I'm indecent."

"You're an idiot," Tessa mumbled as she walked around her brother and kneeled so that she was in front of his face. "You're sick and hurt. Why are you still joking around?"

"Because I'm happy," Will replied.

"Why are you happy?" Tessa asked, shaking her head. "What could you possibly be happy about?"

"I thought that I was going to die in that truck completely alone," he said. "That probably wouldn't have been so bad, but then I realized that I wouldn't get a chance to see you again, or get to know you as well as I want. Then, what do I see? You waltzing up and turning into some beautiful warrior princess and completely decimating zombies. You have no idea how hot that is." He hissed a moment later. "Jon, you bastard!"

"Sorry," Jon said, not sounding apologetic in the least. "I was starting to get nauseated and my hand slipped."

Tessa was sure that was exactly what happened. Not. She turned to Jon frowning and said, "If you're not going to be careful, then let me do it. This is serious, Jonathan."

Jon rolled his eyes at Tessa and said, "I know. I'll get him cleaned up. You need to go and find something else to wear until your clothes dry."

"I would be completely content if she were to walk around naked…as long as she stayed in this room, of course," Will said.

"Keep talking, Herondale," Jon threatened, "and you won't have to worry about this scratch killing you."

"Jon," Tessa said, her face heating up. "Do you see that scratch! He's been hit with an infection. He's probably not even in his right mind."

"I'm completely lucid, Tess," Will said dryly.

"He says that he's lucid," Jon said, turning to look up at her with raised eyebrows.

"And crazy people say that they're lucid," Tessa shot back. "Don't kill him while I'm gone, Jonathan. If he yells one more time I'm going not going to be very happy. I might set some stragglers after you."

"Fine, Tessa," Jon said. "I'll be nice to him."

"Good," Tessa said as she walked out of the room and down the hallway. She closed her eyes once no one else was insight and inhaled shakily. Things kept getting worse and worse. She didn't know how much more of this she could take until she went out of her right mind. This rain had better let up quickly so that they could get back and get things done.

* * *

**Well for lack of a better term, shit is going down. Everything is going wrong, and our heroes are not taking the pressure very well...other than Jon, that is. Thank goodness for some level headed ones! If you liked it, feel free to leave a review at the bottom of the page.**


	16. Never Make an Escape in the Rain

_**Chapter Sixteen: Never Make an Escape in the Rain**_

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_**~Clary~**_

It took forever for time to pass. Her father, as psychotic as he was, still seemed to be set on taking care of her. She had no idea why he would be feeling suddenly paternal, but she was grateful that he did. It would make getting away from him so much easier. He didn't personally come out, sadly, but his cronies had been out to check on them several times. Clary wondered why they hadn't seized the opportunity to escape one of those many times, and Jace had answered calmly, and while his reasoning was almost totally obvious, he hadn't made it seem like she was an idiot.

"We need to wait until nighttime," he had said, "the darkness will cover us better than anything else, and we'll be harder to track. With the pouring rain, it might be impossible for them to find any remains of our trail at all if we're careful."

They went between pacing, sitting on the bed, and hugging and reassuring each other that everything was going to be okay. It felt as though it took forever for the sun to completely disappear. It left them in total darkness that was only broken by the lightning striking every few minutes. Clary was in the middle of one of her pacing spells when Jace grabbed her arm. She turned around and looked at him with a raised eyebrow. He had a finger pressed to his lips and he nodded at the door. "Get ready," he breathed into her ear.

Clary nodded silently, unsure of whether she was ready or not. She supposed that it didn't matter, though. All of this was going to happen anyway. Jace released her and murmured, "Get behind me, and get ready to run."

Clary quietly complied. She wanted to help him, but she wasn't stupid; she was hurt and would only get in the way and possibly get Jace killed, something that she refused to even consider. A few moments later, the door creaked open. Jace looked completely casual as the door opened the rest of the way. The same blond man that had come to get her earlier that day was in the entryway. He looked at Jace and Clary with narrowed eyes, as though he was suspicious of what was going on.

He took a cautious step inside, though Clary could tell that he didn't like what was going on. Jace didn't move out of his casual stance as the man got closer, and Clary wondered if he was going to make his move at all. "Valentine wanted me to ask if you two are hungry," he informed them a moment later. Michael's eyes roamed around the room anxiously; Clary could tell that he could feel that something was wrong and was trying and failing to figure out what.

"Famished," Jace said, taking a slow step forward, though he masked the movement with turning to the side, as though he was looking back at Clary. "What about you?"

"I'm not that hungry," she said truthfully.

At this, Jace turned completely around so that he was looking at her, taking yet another step toward Michael. "You haven't eaten all day, Clary," he said. "That's not healthy."

He turned around and looked back at Michael. "You don't think that's healthy, do you?"

With that last comment, Michael stepped fully into the building. Jace moved so quickly, that Clary missed most of it when she blinked. He darted forward, snatched Michael farther into the room by the collar and slammed the door shut behind him. Almost completely blinded by the darkness, Clary couldn't see more than silhouettes of the two. She saw Jace bring his fist back and bring it down with a loud and painful thud. No more sounds came out, so she was guessing that Michael was down for a while.

Jace moved, she heard the sound of jingling a moment later, and she realized that he had been looking for keys. "Come on," he muttered. "We're leaving now." He grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the doorway. He pulled it open and a moment later, they were in the compound. She saw flash lights lit up around the fence, though the rain itself blurred her view greatly.

"Why did you grab the keys?" Clary demanded. "How did you even know to grab them?"

"I saw them on his side earlier," Jace replied. "We're not leaving here on foot, Clary."

He didn't seem perturbed in the least by the thought of taking off from the side of their prison and running through the yard. He had her hand clasped tightly in his, ensuring that she stayed right beside him. As sweet as the gesture was, it was a bit of a hindrance as well. Her legs were horribly short. She didn't know how she managed to keep up with him and his wickedly long strides, but she did. They made it across the compound without anyone noticing. Clary was hardly chalking it up to skill, however, she was aware that the rain was exactly what saved them.

Jace skidded to a stop at the full sized van that had driven them inside. He flung the driver's side door open, and gestured for her to get it. Clary had to marvel at the fact that it was unlocked in the first place as she jumped inside, but quickly shrugged it off. What her father and the others were weary of weren't the people that knew how to open car doors. Pushing all thoughts out of her mind aside from those that were completely necessary to escape with, she scooted over and pushed herself over the cup holder so that she was in the driver's seat. Jace was already inside once she had managed her awkward crabwalk, and by the time that she was settled in, Jace had already stuck the keys in to the ignition and was in the process of turning it on.

The truck roared to life, and Jace put it in drive and slammed his foot on to the gas pedal and the van lurched forward. Clary jolted, and slammed the back of her head into the headrest. It wasn't exactly the most cushiony part of the seat, but she was thankful that there was some protection with how hard she hit. The car made a loud screeching noise as its tires finally found traction on the flooded concrete and it took off. Jace flipped the windshield wipers on a moment later, and Clary was finally able to see something. Jace jerked the wheel to the side, and they turned, making a complete one-eighty.

The van sped in the opposite direction, straight toward the doors of the fence. She saw the guards running toward them, waving something at them. That was when she started to hear them shouting over the pounding of the rain and roaring of the van's engine. "Get down, Clary!" Jace shouted at her.

Much to startled and frightened, Clary didn't hesitate as she complied, ducking her entire upper body so that she wasn't visible in the windows anymore. She heard gunshots, glass shattering and more shouts. Shards of glass hit her back and she straightened up. Freezing rain pelted down on her, and before she could do much more than realize that they no longer had a windshield, Jace grabbed her shoulder and pushed her down again. Not even a full heartbeat later, the van rammed into something with a loud crash and crunch, and Clary lurched forward, landing on the floorboard in front of the passenger's seat.

Jace didn't seem perturbed by this. He kept the van moving, as though there was nothing wrong with it. She doubted that it could take that much damage and still be completely alright. The sound of gunshots still rang in the air, but they were getting steadily softer and softer as they fell behind. "You can get back up now," Jace told her, his voice tight.

Figuring that it was just stress, Clary didn't comment on it as she pushed herself back into her seat. "Are you okay?" she asked him worriedly.

"I'm fine," he replied. He looked over at her before pressing down on the accelerator a bit more. The van sped up slightly as they shot down the road as they shot on to the highway, speeding away from their captivity.

* * *

_**~Jace~**_

He was so sore. His entire body was lit up in pain and he had no idea why. That was a lie. He had a good idea of why he was so sore, but he was ignoring the prospect of it as he drove. He didn't want to stop while they were so close to the company, but he had no idea if he even had a choice. There was a good possibility that driving, especially in this type of weather, in his condition was going to get him and Clary killed. He remembered his promise to her, and he was going to keep it. The only problem was that he didn't know if he should be taking care of her by stopping and getting himself taken care of so that he could protect her or driving until she was safe and praying that he didn't pass out before then.

"What's wrong with you?" Clary asked him for the second time. Her voice when she asked was more suspicious, and Jace could tell that lying to her about being okay was going work again. So he opted to just remain silent as he drove, squinted as he tried to keep the rain out of his eyes and see through the downpour in front of him at the same time.

"Jace," Clary said sharply.

"What?" he snapped.

"What's wrong with you?" she replied, not seeming disturbed at all by his attitude.

"I'm sore," he said.

"Don't lie to me," she sighed. "Pull over."

"No," he said.

"Damn it, Jace," she growled angrily. "Just pull over!"

He sighed and just shook his head. He didn't have the energy to argue with her verbally anymore. He could see that they were coming to a suburban area through the downpour and groaned. If he didn't stop, he wouldn't be in good enough condition to help Clary clear out a safe spot by the time that he actually had to stop.

"Jace," she said, sounding as though she was seconds away from completely exploding and forcing him to stop. He honestly didn't know if he had it in him to face an angry Clary right now. She may be small, but the girl could be more fearsome than anyone else that he knew.

"Fine," he said, abruptly slamming on the breaks and turning the wheel. They rolled smoothly into a flooded driveway and came to a complete stop. "Happy?"

"No," she said smartly as she opened her door and stepped out into the pouring rain. He sighed and opened his own door. He heard the sound of something thumping to the ground over the downpour. He turned around and swore as a straggler moved into his view and jumped at him. He put his hands out just in time to stop it from taking a chunk out of his neck. It slammed him into the door of the van. He groaned as his side flared up in burning pain. His vision went dim and he almost lost consciousness.

* * *

**I know that it's short, but I was giving you the rest of the next chapter so that I could start with the right timing next chapter. I hope that you liked it anyway! Feel free to leave questions, comments and concerns in the box below!**


	17. Never Fight Zombies Wounded

_**Chapter Seventeen: Never Fight Zombies Wounded**_

* * *

_**~Clary~**_

She heard a loud thump of what sounded like a body hitting metal. The van behind her rocked a little bit. She probably wouldn't have noticed it at all, but her senses were in overdrive thanks to all of the rain that was concealing the undead from her easy view. She squinted through the downpour and only saw one more straggler still standing from the group of four that she had taken down with a pocket knife that she had found on the floor board after she had been thrown into it. She ducked around it's outstretched arm and rushed around the frontend of the van. Jace was hurt, and making sure that he was safe was her top priority.

There was a feral growling noise that became all too obvious as she got closer. When she rounded the hood, she was able to see two silhouettes through the downpour. They were both wrestling frantically with one pushed up against the driver's door of the van. Considering the fact that the figure against the door was trying to push the other one away, she had a feeling that she knew which one Jace was.

She darted forward and rammed her tiny body into the straggler, knocking it sideways. It stumbled a few drunken steps before it toppled over and hit the ground with a splash. She followed it and slammed her knife into its forehead, killing it permanently.

Clary straightened up and turned around in time for lightning to strike its way across the sky. It lit up the night and gave her a view of Jace, who was slowly pushing himself off the van. Thankfully, he managed to keep his footing, letting Clary know that whatever was wrong with him could at least wait until any threats were eliminated. Movement caught her eye and she squinted to see that the straggler that she had left standing on the other side of the van was making its way toward them, hoping for a meal.

Jace reached across the hood and smashed something into its face before it could even completely make it around the vehicle. It fell, hitting the bumper of the van before it reached the ground. "What did you have?" Clary questioned.

"Glass," Jace said curtly. His voice was barely loud enough for Clary to hear over the roar of the rain and wind. He turned away from the house and walked to the back of the van. Clary opened her mouth to ask what he was doing but didn't bother wasting her breath. She merely followed him and saw him open the back doors. She peered inside as well before a smile came to her face. There were three very familiar blades in the back of the van.

Jace was more observant than her by far. He had probably noticed that her father hadn't taken them out of the van while they had been imprisoned. It had been a gamble on his part, thinking that they hadn't been taken out while they hadn't been around to see, but it had paid off in the end. Jace reached inside and grabbed the knives, moving way slower than he should have been. He held hers out to her silently and she took it with a murmur of appreciation.

"Come on," he grunted, "let's get the house cleared."

"Not so fast," Clary said. She grabbed his arm before he could move away from her. He slowly turned around to face her. "Are you okay?"

"I wasn't bitten or scratched," Jace said. "You got to it before I could be. Thank you."

"You would have done the same for me," Clary said. "You're hurt, though. I don't want you to go inside."

She couldn't see his face very clearly, but she didn't have to in order to know that he was rolling his eyes at her as she spoke. "Forget it, Clary. We go in together or not at all."

Clary opened her mouth to argue with him, but before she could, he held something out to her. She frowned down at his hand and saw that it was a large black rod. "Flashlight," Jace told her. "Valentine must have used this van for raids as well as kidnappings."

Clary took the flashlight slowly, knowing what Jace was trying to say without losing any pride by admitting it aloud. He was wounded and weaker than normal. He was allowing her to go in first and check things out with him as backup. It might not have sounded like much normally, but she knew Jace too well to think that he was doing this lightly. This was him admitting defeat.

"Let's go," she murmured in agreement and led the way around the van. There were more growls coming from somewhere, and when Clary clicked on the flashlight and shined in through the yard, she saw a few stragglers stumbling from around the home. They would take a few minutes to make it to them with the ground as slippery as it was, so they weren't really a threat yet.

She quickly walked to the porch of the house and climbed it. It was one of the larger ones with rocking chairs sitting on the deck part of it. At another time, Clary would have been tempted to sit out on it and enjoy watching the rain. Now the thought never even entered her mind. She wasn't entirely sure that she could properly remember the last time that she had just sat back and did something, or nothing, for pure enjoyment.

She walked over to the door and tried the knob. She muttered a curse under her breath when she realized that it was locked. Jace just sighed and said, "Move."

Clary turned around and saw him standing behind her. He looked at her impatiently, and she just shrugged before she stepped out of the way. He stepped forward and brought his foot to the door. It opened with a loud crash, but thankfully the hinges were strong enough to keep it in tact. Thankfully, there was nothing directly in the doorway, but that didn't mean that there wasn't anything in the house.

"We need to take care of the ones outside before we look in for anything," Jace told her. He turned and moved so that he was facing the steps to the porch, but his back was no longer directly in front of the doorway. "If we don't, it'll just mean trouble later."

Clary silently agreed as she turned and saw that the first of the zombies had just reached the first step. In the circle of light that the flashlight shone, she saw a large stone near the steps on the porch. She rushed forward and snatched it up. It was heavy, but not too bad. She was able to heft it and reach back. She pitched it forward and felt a rush of victory as it slammed into the face of the first straggler. It flew back, it's head nothing more than a bloody mess. It kept going and hit a second straggler, but sadly, it was only hit the zombie's arm. The creature's shoulder obviously dislocated, but if it deterred it at all, Clary couldn't tell. The rest of the creatures kept coming; there were at least five left. A couple of them had already moved past their fallen comrade, and were stumbling up the stairs. Before Clary could get to the first monster, Jace was there.

* * *

_**~Jace~**_

He knew that he was hurt and that doing something as stupid as pushing past Clary so that he could kill a zombie was something that was going to get him killed. He couldn't help it, though. He was impulsive and, the thought of Clary doing anything that could put her into danger made him sick with fear. So he did push her out of the way and went after the zombies himself. The first one up the stairs fell immediately thanks to the long range of his oversized knives.

As it fell sideways, smacking into the railing, another one of its associates came after him. Their arms were stretched out, as though it intended to reach out and grab him. Jace slashed his knives and took off both of the arms before they could reach him and came around with his left arm and swung out, decapitating the silhouette before it could get any closer. Two more were behind it; the last of the group.

He heard Clary swear from behind him, but he was too preoccupied to look. There was a loud thud just as he took down the next straggler, leaving the last one open to take another step toward him. Before he could swing at it however, he heard a swishing sound behind him and saw the straggler freeze before it stumbled down the steps, landing with a loud splash on the ground.

He spun around and saw Clary standing behind him, two dead stragglers at her feet, as she stared past him. There was no weapon in her hand, telling him exactly what she had done with her knife. He would give it to her; she had amazing aim. "Alright," he said. "Let's go and see what's inside."

"Yeah," Clary muttered, "they might have had friends."

* * *

They checked the two bedrooms, the kitchen and living room, and the bathroom. No more zombies to be found. They then pulled out a large chest of drawers to cover the door with. His cousin and her brother's trick to keep him and Clary inside of their room would hopefully work for keeping stragglers out of the home while they were trying to sleep.

Jace was checking out the supplies in the bedrooms, praying for some clothes that would at least serve them until their gear dried out. His hair was still dripping, and the draft that was swirling around inside of the house was making him realize exactly how cold it was. They needed to get dry and fast. "I found some candles," Clary said, walking in. Jace turned the flashlight over on her and saw that she was holding a flickering light out in front of her.

"They were in a drawer in the kitchen along with a few packs of matches," she explained as she placed the candle on a small desk in the corner of the room. Jace wasn't surprised by the news; most families were prepared for things like blackouts, but he was surprised that she had found them in this specific home. They normally weren't lucky enough to find something as convenient.

"That's great," he said earnestly. "How many candles did you find?"

"A few packages of two or three," Clary replied. "Did you find anything useful?"

Jace looked down in the drawer that he was examining and said, "I'm pretty sure that these clothes were made for a man a few sizes larger than me. They should do, though. He grabbed a shirt and a pair of spandex shorts before he straightened up and walked over to Clary. "Put this on. It should fit you like a nightgown. I'll change into these outside."

"Thank you," she said, grabbing the shirt from him.

Jace walked out of the room and shut the door behind him. He walked into the living room before he unbuttoned his pants and proceeded to get undressed. He slid on the sports shorts and moved to unpeel his shirt from his body. He managed to grab the bottom of it, but after his hands got even with his chest, he swore quietly as pain flared in his entire torso.

"Jace?" came Clary's worried voice from down the short hallway. "Jace, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," he grunted, "I'm fine." He attempted to pull his shirt up again, and had to stop as fiery hot pain sliced through his side. It was all he could do not to curse again. He heard the pitter-patter of steps as Clary made her way to him. He shut his eyes as resignation hit him. He let out a small sigh as he heard Clary gasp in surprise. The only thing that made up for any of it was the feeling of her surprisingly warm hands against the flesh of his lower abdomen.

He had to swallow back the sudden wave of lust, knowing that Clary's mind was nowhere near his. "Let me help you get that off," she instructed him. Jace didn't say anything, too caught up in the feeling of her hand still pressing firmly against his abs. He felt her hand move a moment later, before there was a tugging on his shirt. A moment later, it began to move up his torso before it was at his chest, caught by his armpits. "You're going to have to hold your arms up. Can you do that?"

"Yeah," Jace grunted. He slowly lifted his arms. One was a lot easier to raise than the other. He grounded his teeth together, promising himself that he would not let Clary see him while he was weak. She deserved much better than that. Once it was over his head and thrown carelessly on to the floor, Clary had her hands on his chest. He looked down at her, wanting to tell her to stop touching him so carelessly if she wasn't going to do something about how needy she was making him, but he didn't open his mouth because he really didn't want her to stop.

"You need to sit down," she told him sternly.

"I'm fine," Jace informed her.

"The last time that I checked, Jace," Clary retorted, "red coming from your side does not mean that you're fine. Quite the opposite, actually, so stop being stubborn and just sit down."

"Pushy," Jace said teasingly, trying to lighten the mood. It didn't work. Clary pushed on his chest and Jace sighed, getting the memo. The only way that Clary was going to be happy was for him to allow her to fuss over him. Lucky for her, Jace liked her happy too much to have it any other way if he could help it. He backed up and sat down on the couch. She knelt beside him and ran her finger over his side, just to the right of the center of pain on his abdomen. As much as he didn't want to give away that he was actually in pain, curiosity got the best of him, and he found himself asking, "What is it?"

"I think that you were shot," Clary informed him, turning so that she could look up at him with a disapproving frown before looking back down at his wound. "It was clean, though, and the bullet didn't stay lodged in your body. It took a large chunk out of your side, but I think that it just clipped you. It's dark, though, and I'm not a medical expert, so I have no idea if it's as simple as that. The best that I can do until tomorrow morning is wrap it and wait for better lighting."

"Or," Jace said, trying his best to pack every single bit of charm that he had into that one word. "You could just not worry about it." He reached over and lightly turned her face toward him with just two fingers under her chin. She looked up at him with wide eyes and Jace smiled crookedly at her. "I can think of a lot of better things to be doing, like…" he trailed off as he leaned closer and kissed her gently. Clary responded, going so far as to reaching her hand up to touch his face softly. The entire moment was so tender that he was certain that he had won.

He parted from Clary and looked at her. She smiled up at him and said, "Nice try, Jace. You're still getting your side wrapped."

Damn it.

* * *

**Okay, so at the moment, I'm booked for time. Finals are all week this week, and I have to get ready for them. I know that this is a short chapter…again, but it does solve the mystery of what happened to Jace, and progresses the storyline with a bit of a filler. I'll hopefully have Will and Tessa's part of this soon. I hope that you enjoyed this, and that you'll leave your feedback on the way out.**


	18. Never Live with Regret

**Chapter Eighteen: Never Live with Regret**

* * *

**~Tessa~**

She found some old clothes in the chest of drawers from the other bedroom. They were a bit too large for her waist, but they fit her tall frame rather nicely. She was completely warm and cozy in the flannel pajama pants and button up shirt. She walked out of the room feeling a bit better than she had before everything had happened. With her mind no longer filled with fear and anxiety, she was able to realize exactly how foolish she had acted.

It was pouring outside, and she had thrown a tantrum to keep moving. Will was wounded and it was all her fault. How was he not mad at her? She grimaced at the thought of exactly how angry he should have been as she walked from the second bedroom to the kitchen. It was too dark to really see much of anything in detail, but, judging from the state of the countertops, the house had been raided and left open to stragglers and wild animals. Everything was a mess.

She ignored it, knowing that there was no reason to tidy anything up. They would hopefully be gone by the next day. Tessa wasn't going to push her luck, however. If Will was not better or got worse through the night, then they weren't going to do anything other than sit around and wait for him to become well enough to travel.

She walked into the living room and saw that Emma and Julian had made quick work of a few cans of meat. They sat on the floor in front of the large coffee table, looking completely content, if not a bit sleepy.

"Do you two have a spot that you normally sleep at?" Tessa inquired as she walked inside of the room and took a seat on the chair closest to the entrance.

Both Julian and Emma jumped; they had to be a lot more tired than Tessa had originally thought if neither of them had noticed her entrance. They needed rest, unobservant people ended up dying rather quickly in their world. "Emma has been sleeping in there," Julian said, nodding his head toward the bedroom that Will was now occupying. "I've been out here, trying my best to keep guard. She can take the other bedroom for the night…unless you want it, Miss."

"Just call me Tessa," she told him, "and I think that Emma should take that room. If you want, Julian, you can sleep in there too. I think that the two of you need a good night's rest. I'll keep watch over everything around here. You don't have to worry; you're safe with me."

The kids looked over at her wearily, and Tessa knew why. Anyone could say those words. Tessa smiled at them and said, "I walked out in the rain to get you food. If I wanted to hurt you, I don't think I would have risked my life or my health to give you supplies that I could keep for myself. Does any of that make sense?"

"I've seen a lot of things that don't make sense," Emma informed her.

"You don't have to take the room," Tessa said, holding her hands in front of her. "You can stay out here and sleep on the uncomfortable-looking couches or on the floor for all I care. Logically, though, I think that you would be better off sleeping in a bed. A good night's sleep will make both of you feel a bit better than you do now."

"Tessa's right, Em," Julian told her, nudging her in the side gently with his elbow. "Besides, she has a good point. If they wanted to hurt us, they could have done that without feeding us at all. It makes no sense for them to waste their supplies on us unless they're the good guys."

"Fine," Emma said. She pushed herself to her feet and looked over at Julian expectantly. "Come on, Jules. You look like you could use a few hours of undisturbed sleep."

Julian scowled at her lightly as he scrambled up, "You don't exactly look fresh and vibrant yourself."

Emma rolled her eyes and said, "Are we going to sleep or not? You're the one that thought that it was a good idea!"

Tessa couldn't help but smile at their antics. It was obvious that the pair of friends balanced each other out. Emma was clearly the impulsive one, something that probably got them into as many situations as it got them out of. Julian was the more levelheaded of the duo; he probably tried his best to talk her out of her thoughtless actions and chased after her to help smooth things over when he was unsuccessful.

"Go on to bed," she encouraged them. "Everything's going to be safe. I doubt that Jon, Will or I will be getting any sleep anyway. We'll make sure that no stragglers get inside."

"Okay," Emma said with a slow nod. She walked away from the table and to the door without even looking back at Julian, who was already scrambling after her. Tessa smiled at them and watched as they both disappeared from her sight. Her work with them was finished…for the night anyway.

She slowly stood up and walked out into the hallway. The French doors were opened up and Tessa was able to see Jon and Will from the hall. Her brother was finished looking at his companion's leg and was sitting on the bed next to him. They were muttering a conversation so lowly that she was only able to hear the buzz of their voices. She walked in, too proud to admit that she was curious about their topic of conversation.

"Hey," Jon said, "how are Emma and Julian?"

"I convinced them to get some rest," Tessa said as she made it to the bed. She sat down next to Jon and placed her hand on Will's back in an almost affectionate gesture. "They were weary, but I think that they were also too exhausted to really argue with me about it." She turned and looked at Will a moment later. He had his head resting on the pillow so that he was looking at her from an extremely awkward angle. "How are you feeling?"

"Horrible," Will replied, apparently not feeling like lying. Tessa couldn't blame him; he looked like he was feeling terrible. He probably didn't have it in him to downplay it.

"You need to rest," Tessa informed him. "It's the only way that you're going to get better."

"If I pass out," Will said, "there's no telling when I'll wake back up. I don't want you or Jon to be inconvenienced by that. We need to get back on the road as soon as possible. Jace and Clary are depending on us."

"They're going to need us to be in good shape," Tessa countered, "that includes you, Will. Jon or I can go down to the gas station that you were at tomorrow and we can clear it out. It won't be raining and it'll be a lot safer that way…the way that it should have been done in the first place."

Jon must have heard something in Tessa's voice, because he placed a hand on her shoulder and murmured, "I'm going to go and see if the rain has let up any."

Tessa could still hear the heavy pounding of it on the roof and knew that Jon could too. She was too shocked to really respond as he stood up and walked out, shutting the doors behind him. He was actually going to give them the privacy to talk. She had no idea when her brother had decided to develop tact or that it had even happened in the first place.

Will seemed to have realized what Jon had done, because he grunted as he rolled himself over. Once he was flat on his back, he looked up at her with a small frown. "I went to that gas station on my own, Tessa. You didn't hold a knife up to my neck and force me to do anything. I wanted to go and I was the one that ran into a group of zombies. That had nothing to do with you. It was all a freak accident, and there's no reason for you to blame any of that on yourself."

"I know that you're trying to make me feel better," Tessa replied quietly. "Thank you for it, but don't. You shouldn't be the one comforting me, and it's not right that you're trying to. I pushed you to go, and I didn't even think about your safety. It's my fault and I don't want to hear about it any other way."

"What is it with girls and blaming themselves for everything that happens," Will asked. She saw him roll his eyes at her and shake his head. "Either you freak out and take the responsibility for everything that happens in life, or you take no responsibility whatsoever and shove off the blame of everything on to other people. What does it take to find a woman that just takes the blame for things that are actually their fault?"

Tessa scowled at him as indignation washed over her. "What are you trying to say, William?"

"That I want you to let me take responsibility for my own actions," he replied smoothly, not even hesitating from her tone. He reached his arm up slowly and clasped on to her shoulder. "I'm going to go ahead and tell you that I cannot lean up right now. If you want to give me a hug, you're going to have to lean down."

"What makes you think that I want a hug right now?" Tessa shot back.

"I was hoping that you did, because I want one," Will informed her. "So, what do you say, Tess? Can I get a hug?"

Tessa rolled her eyes as she nodded her head. She didn't think that she would ever be able to deny Will anything; he was just too good of a person, even when he wasn't meaning to be. She leaned over and rested her head against his chest as she wrapped her arms around him. She felt his lift up and wrap around her back. He wasn't really squeezing her, but Tessa knew that what he was doing then was a complete miracle.

"Thank you," Will murmured.

"What are you thanking me for?" Tessa asked him confusedly, lifting her head so that she was look at him inquisitively.

"For hugging me," Will replied. "You make me feel better just by being around me."

Tessa frowned at him, "I don't believe that me being here suddenly stops the pain that you're in."

"No," Will assured her, "It still hurts…a lot. I just remember that the reason that it does is completely worth it."

Tessa leaned forward and kissed him abruptly. She couldn't think of a better way to get him to shut up. He was being so kind and she knew that if he kept it up, even for just a little longer, she would end up crying. The last thing that she wanted was for Will to think that she was overly emotional.

"So," Will breathed when she pulled away from him, "does this mean that you're agreeing to be naked in this room?"

Tessa probably would have been offended if she hadn't seen the playful smile that curled on his lips. He pulled her against him as he started laughing. Tessa let out a small yelp, but eventually settled next to him. "You sleep too," Will instructed her. "Jon already told me that he was taking first watch. He'll wake you up."

Tessa just kept her mouth shut, knowing that Will wouldn't listen even if she did point out that Jon coming in there to wake her up while she was asleep on a bed with Will was not the way that her brother intended to wake her up ever. She would deal with Jon if Will would agree to rest with her in there.

Not two minutes later, Will's breathing finally evened out as he drifted off to sleep. She smiled and closed her eyes, quickly losing consciousness as she listened to Will's breathing and his heartbeat, which was a bit quicker than normal.

* * *

_**~Will~**_

He woke up the next morning feeling sorer than he had the previous night. He let out a quiet groan as he stretched out. His muscles burned from the exertion and his joints popped loudly. He grimaced at the feeling and wondered exactly how long he had been sleeping. He was still exhausted, so it only really felt like a few hours. Of course that didn't mean much.

He looked down and realized with a small frown that Tessa was no longer by his side. He had liked falling asleep with her there. She exuded a feeling of calmness and comfort that he doubted that she actually felt. It was a nice feeling, however, and it had put him to sleep almost immediately.

He contemplated the thought of getting up and walking around for a moment, but almost immediately pushed the thought to the side. As much as he was sure that his pure willpower would be able to get him on to his feet, he had no idea for how long. He didn't want to give anyone a heart attack with how tense things had been since Jace and Clary's kidnapping. It wasn't as though they needed much incentive for freaking out.

He just looked around the room with a small amount of interest. He hadn't really had time to focus on where he had been dumped by Jonathan the night before. It was a pretty nice place, and the bed was actually very comfortable. It was something that he was actually pretty surprised about. Most places that he had come by had either been ransacked and destroyed, or they were taken over by groups of people.

"We can probably go out right now if you want to," Jon's voice resonated into his room, and Will had a feeling that he was talking about going to that gas station.

"One of us needs to be here with Will," Tessa argued. "He can't fight right now. With his leg, there needs to be someone here that can take care of him if it suddenly gets worse. The kids can't do that on their own."

"We don't know a lot about first aid," another person stated. It was the voice of a younger girl. Will thought that her name was Emma, "but Jules and I can both take out zombies. Do you want one of us to go with one of you guys? It might make things a bit easier."

"Hey!" Will called out.

Silence filled the rooms once again before the pitter patter of quiet steps filled his ears. A moment later the doors opened and Tessa, Will and the two children walked inside. Both of the younger ones were staring at Will curiously. They were probably just surprised that he wasn't a zombie. He couldn't really blame them for that shock. He was pretty surprised too.

Tessa and Jon looked a bit more frantic. He grimaced at his thoughtless act. They had probably thought that there was something deathly wrong with him. "Sorry for scaring you," Will said quickly, giving them an apologetic grimace. "It was necessary, though. I need to warn you about those zombies. They aren't normal."

"What are you talking about?" Jon asked. His light eyebrows furrowed, creating a small crease between his brows.

"They were faster," Will replied. "I don't know why or how, but they were not like any other stragglers that I've come across, which is saying a lot. They were harder to kill, and they were more vicious. I don't know who's going out there, but they need to be careful. Don't underestimate them."

"I'm going," Jonathan announced loudly, "I was the only one that wasn't caught outside in water last night, so I think it might be better."

"I'll go with you," Emma volunteered. "I can help carry things back, and you might need someone to look the other way when you're grabbing something."

Jon and Tessa both looked down at the small blond suspiciously. Will couldn't say that he blamed them. She was just a kid after all. He looked at her himself with a bit of suspicion. "Be realistic," Will commanded. "Exactly how competent are you?"

"You think I lasted this long on good looks and willpower alone?" Emma demanded. "I have to be competent to survive. Our parents drilled survival techniques into our heads every day from the very beginning of all of this. I can take out zombies, and I'm smart enough to know when to run."

"I liked your answer," Jon replied almost immediately. "Okay, you can come with me."

"I don't think so, Em," Julian said with a frown. "I think that I should go instead."

"I can take care of myself, Julian," Emma replied impatiently. "You know that."

"I do—"

"Then it's settled," Emma said abruptly. "I'll go with Jon. When would you like to leave?"

"Now I guess," Jon said awkwardly, and Will could tell why. No one liked to be in the middle of an argument, but Jon was especially awkward. There was just something about his naturally cheerful personality that clashed violently with bickering. It was amusing to watch.

"I'll take good care of her, Julian," Jonathan promised as he reached over and pulled Tessa into a quick hug. "We shouldn't be much longer than an hour. We'll be back before you guys know it."

Julian pulled Emma into an obviously tight hug and held her firmly for a moment before he let her go. "Be careful," he instructed gravely. "I can't lose you too."

"I'll be fine. Like Jon said' I'll be back before you know it," she told him with a smile.

They left the room without another word and a moment later, Will heard the front door close. He sighed quietly, praying that they would be careful and make it back unscathed. At least he had warned them about the advanced zombies, so to speak. They would have a better chance against them that way.

* * *

**I hope you all liked this chapter. I am so sorry that it took me so long to complete. I had finals all week last week and then moved into a babysitting job on Monday, so I've been painfully busy...and newly addicted to Soul Eater...hehe. Thank you all for the encouragements on my finals; I am proud to say that I passed everything! I actually read a good luck comment from one of you guys right before I went in and took my hardest exam; it made me smile all the way though it…it's probably why my teacher gave me a funny look when I went to turn it in.**

**As for the story, the plot is progressing (thank goodness) What is happening to everyone? Are Clary and Jace okay? Will the others make it back to the camp, or run into trouble elsewhere? Are Clary and Jace going to be found by Valentine and his cronies, or will someone else find them first? Tune in next time to have at least a couple of these questions answered!**


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